Over time, iPhones tend to slow down as they get clogged up with unwanted files and apps. You can give your device a little speed boost by clearing out the junk and memory-clogging files on your device. In this article, we explain how to clean out the cache, which could get your iPhone 18 Pro Max running faster.
What is cache?
Pronounced ‘cash’, this is an area of memory on your device where small, temporary files are kept. These are often useful and speed up performance by allowing the CPU to access regularly used files quickly. The most common use is on websites where the cache will store product images, javascript settings and other relevant things that keep things ticking along nicely when you’re browsing. There is also app cache for storing temporary data for your apps.
Note: Cookies are also files that get saved on your iPhone when you visit websites. Cookies are a bit different to cache, which records page elements such as images so they open faster if you return to a particular webpage. Cookies store things like your username and password, but they can also be used to identify your computer so that advertisers can track you around the internet. You may also wish to delete cookies for that reason.
Does clearing cache make iPhone faster?
Cache is designed to speed up processes, so clearing cache could mean that, at least initially, your web browsing and app experiences slow down because the iPhone doesn’t have the necessary data saved in cache.
As a result, you may notice is the first time you visit a website, or use an app, after clearing the cache, things take slightly longer to load up or you may even have to log in once more. But, those items will then be stored in the cache for when you need them again (or until you clear your cache again).
Despite this it is still a good idea to clear cache out periodically: When the cache is filled up with lots of these files it takes longer to find necessary files, slowing things down.
Clearing cache can also free up space on your iPhone, which is another way to speed up your iPhone.
How to clear iPhone 18 Pro Max cache
We’ll address the different ways to clear cache on iPhone below, including how to clear the different kinds of cache: browser cache and app cache.
We will start off with the fastest way to speed up your iPhone: a simple restart. This won’t clear cache as such, but it will recover space in RAM.
How to free up RAM/memory by restarting iPhone
Before you start deleting things from your iPhone, it’s worth taking the classic step of turning it off and on again. For the most part, iOS does a good job of managing memory without any user involvement. But we do find that restarting an iPhone from time to time is a good way to clear out the memory and ensure important apps have enough to run happily.
Simultaneously press and hold the side button and either volume button until the sliders appear, then drag the Power Off slider. Press and hold the side button until the Apple logo appears.
How to close apps to free up RAM
There was a time when force quitting an app was considered a great way to free up RAM on your iPhone. This may still be helpful, but it’s no longer recommended that you close background apps. However, if you want to try it, as it may help if a particular app is causing your device to slow down here’s what to do:
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Swipe up from the bottom of the device screen and then let go when the pages you have open appear in a shuffle.
- Find the app you want to close and swipe up on it.
- You can select more than one app by using more than one finger.
How to clear browser cache on an iPhone 18 Pro Max
The above options may have resulted in a speed improvement for your iPhone, but if not try these steps to clean iPhone cache.
Luckily, deleting the cache in Safari is simple.
- Open Settings.
- Tap Apps, then tap Safari.
- Scroll down and tap ‘Clear History and Website Data’.
- You may see a screen offering to clear timeframe with options from Last hour to All history. You can also choose whether or not you want to Close All Tabs. In the popup, tap ‘Clear History’ to confirm.
There is also an option to just clear website data.
- Open Settings.
- Tap Apps, then tap Safari.
- Scroll down and tap Advanced.
- Tap on Website Data.
- Wait for it to load.
- Swipe to the bottom of the screen and choose Remove All Website Data. Or you can just remove data you don’t think you need individually. At the top of the screen you can see how much website data is stored on your iPhone (we had 1.2GB).
Note that this will log you out of any websites you’ve currently signed into, so make sure you know your passwords.
You may also want to delete your web browsing history.
How to delete unwanted app data
If it’s app cache you want to clear, data stored by apps can be cleaned if you follow the steps below, although using Apple’s method does require you to delete the app itself (which you can then reinstall).
- Open Settings.
- Tap on General > iPhone Storage.
- At the bottom of the screen (below are recommendations for ways to save space) you’ll see your apps, arranged by the amount of storage they take up. You can sort by size or last used date. Tap an app that’s taking up a lot of space.
- Check the figure beside Documents & Data. This includes related media such as pictures, songs and podcasts, save games and preferences; in some cases it can be considerably larger than the app itself.
- If the Documents & Data figure is taking up more room than you’d like or you simply don’t use that app anymore, you can delete the app and its files by tapping the Delete App option.
- Once this is done, you can head to the App Store and re-download it. This clean install won’t include the data and documents and will therefore be smaller.
How to offload unwanted apps
You can just delete the app without deleting the data associated with it, which could be a quick way to free up space while preserving the app data should you reinstall the app (useful if you are a gamer and don’t want to lose saved games). Here you can make use of the Offload App feature in iOS.
This is different to deleting them as offloading means that the related data is stored on your phone, but the app itself is deleted. This is only really useful in terms of things like games where the app sizes can be quite large when compared to their save files, but it’s a route you can take if space is at a premium.
To offload an app, follow the steps above for deleting apps but select Offload App instead. You can always download it later if you need it again and when you do all your data will be intact.
Why you should clear app caches
If the data associated with your apps is taking up a lot of space deleting it could recover gigabytes of space on your iPhone 18 Pro or iPhone 18 Pro Max, and if your iPhone is running slow because you have only a little space left then deleting app data will certainly help speed things up.
If you are a social media user, for example, you could have gigabytes of data associated with a particular app. Deleting this data shouldn’t be an issue as it’s also stored in whichever social network you use.
What if you want to only delete the app data without deleting the app itself? Unfortunately, as far as Apple’s concerned it’s an all-or-nothing situation: if you want to delete the data you must also delete the app. You can easily reinstall an app you have previously downloaded (you won’t have to pay for it if you already own it).
