How to Clear the Reading List Cache in Apple Safari

The Reading List feature in Apple Safari is an excellent tool for saving articles and webpages that you want to read later. One of its best features is the ability to save these pages offline, allowing you to read them on a flight or during a commute without an internet connection. However, if you use this feature heavily, your Mac or iPhone will download and store hundreds of megabytes of website data, images, and HTML files. To free up storage space and remove clutter, you need to clear your Reading List cache.

How to Clear the Reading List on a Mac

On a Mac, you can delete individual offline articles or wipe the entire cache clean in a few clicks.

1. Open the Safari browser on your Mac.
2. Click the Sidebar icon in the top-left corner of the window (it looks like a square with a column on the left), or press Command + Control + 2.
3. At the top of the sidebar, click the Reading List icon (which looks like a pair of eyeglasses).
4. To delete a single item, right-click (or Control-click) on the specific article in the list and select Remove Item.
5. To clear your entire offline cache at once, right-click anywhere in the empty gray space of the Reading List sidebar.
6. Select Clear All Items… from the context menu.
7. A warning prompt will appear asking if you are sure you want to remove all items. Click Clear to confirm.

This action will permanently delete all saved offline data and wipe the list clean across all your iCloud-synced devices.

How to Clear the Reading List on an iPhone or iPad

If you primarily use your iPhone for reading, the process for removing offline data is slightly different.

1. Open the Safari app on your iOS device.
2. Tap the Bookmarks icon at the bottom of the screen (it looks like an open book).
3. Tap the Eyeglasses icon at the top to view your Reading List.
4. To delete a single article, swipe left on the article title and tap the red Delete button.
5. To clear multiple items, tap the Edit button in the bottom-right corner.
6. Tap the circle next to every article you wish to remove, then tap Delete in the bottom-left corner.

Quick Tip for Storage: If you want to stop Safari from automatically downloading heavy files in the future, open your iPhone’s main Settings app, scroll down to Safari, scroll to the very bottom, and turn the Automatically Save Offline toggle to the OFF position.