6 Ways to Recover Deleted Safari History on iPhone/iPad

Safari is Apple’s web browser that comes built into every iPhone and iPad. Like most modern web browsers, Safari stores your browsing history so you can call up web pages that you previously visited on your iPhone or iPad. What if you accidentally deleted or cleared your Safari history? Or lost important browsing history in Safari due to iOS 16 update or system crash?

Is Deleted Safari History Gone Forever?

Not really. When you delete your Safari history, iOS will store it temporarily in several sections of the iPhone or iPad’s memory. On iOS devices, this deleted history will be stored on the device for up to a month. On Mac, the deleted history may be stored on the device for longer, up to a year. This time limit is aimed at giving you time to recover the browsing history if you choose to.

In this guide, we will show you how to quickly find and recover deleted Safari history on iPhone 14/13/12/11, or iPad.

Way 1. Recover Safari History on iPhone/iPad without Backup

To recover Safari history, you need third-party data recovery tool like Fucosoft iPhone Data Recovery. It can recover deleted Safari history on iPhone or iPad directly without backup. Also, it works with the latest iOS 16 and lets you recover more iOS contents like photos, videos, contacts, messages, WhatsApp, Viber, notes, etc. More than that, this program supports selectively recover data from iTunes or iCloud backup, provided you have one.

How to recover deleted Safari history on iPhone or iPad directly:

Step 1: Download and install Fucosoft iPhone Safari History Recovery on your computer. Run it and then choose “Recover Data from iOS devices”.

Step 2: Now connect your iPhone or iPad to the computer using a USB cable and wait for the program to detect the device.

Step 3: In the next screen, choose “Safari Bookmarks”, “Safari history” or any other data you wish to recover, then click “Scan” to begin scanning the device.

Step 4: When the scan is complete, you can preview all browsing history in details. Then select the items you need and click “Recover to PC” to save deleted history to your computer.

Way 2. Recover Deleted Safari History from iCloud Backup

If you frequently back up your data to iCloud, you can recover the missing or deleted safari history by simply restoring the iCloud backup. But please note that this method will erase any data that you have accumulated since the last backup as it involves a factory reset.

Here are the steps to restore an iCloud backup to your iPhone or iPad;

1. Open the settings app on your iPhone or iPad. Tap on the “General” option.
2. Now tap on “Reset” and then select “Erase all Content and Settings” .
3. Once the factory reset process is complete, set up the device as a new one. In the “Apps & Data” screen, choose “Restore from iCloud Backup”.
4. When the restore process is complete, your browser history will be restored to the device.

Way 3. Restore Safari Browsing History from iCloud Website

If you have included Safari history on your iCloud backup and your Safari browsing history were deleted in less than 30 days, you can try to restore Safari history from iCloud.com.

1. Sign in to iCloud.com with your iCloud account and password.
2. Scroll down to the “Advanced Settings” and click “Restore Bookmarks”.
3. Select an archive of bookmarks to restore and click “Restore”

Way 4. Recover Safari History from iTunes/Finder Backup

In much the same way, you can also restore the browsing history from your iTunes/Finder backup. Same to restoring an iCloud backup, this solution will also mean that you will lose any new data on your device.

Here’s how to restore your iPhone or iPad from an iTunes/Finder backup;

1. Start by opening Finder/iTunes Mac or PC and use a data cable to connect the iPhone/iPad to the computer.
2. Select the iPhone or iPad when it appears and then select “Restore Backup.”
3. Select the relevant backup that you’d like to use and click “Restore” to begin the restoration process.
4. When it is complete, set up your device and you should get your browsing history back.

Way 5. Find Some Deleted Safari History under Settings

You can use this mini trick on iPhone or iPad to find some of your deleted Safari history. Please note that if you have cleared up cookies, cache or data, you couldn’t find any data here.

1. Head to “Settings” on your iPhone or iPad.
2. Scroll down the screen to find “Safari” and tap on it.
3. Scroll to the bottom, find and click on the “Advanced” option.
4. Click on “Website Data” to find some of your deleted Safari history there.

Way 6. Recover iPhoneDeleted Safari History from Mac

If you are on Mac, you may be able to recover your missing Safari history using Mac’s built-in backup and restore feature, also known as time machine backup.

All files on the Mac are often stored in the “history.db” database file and you may be able to use it to restore the deleted Safari History. Here are the steps you can follow;

1. Open Finder on your Mac and type in “~Library/Safari” to find the Safari Library. Scroll down to click on the history.db file.
2. Click on the “Time Machine” in the menu bar and then click “Enter Time Machine.”
3. Once inside the Time Machine, select the “History. db” file.
4. Finally click on “Restore” and the Time Machine will start the process of restoring the data in the database file that you have selected.

Once the process is complete, you should be able to get your history back. But please note that this method will not work unless you had created a Time Machine backup.

FAQs About Safari History Recovery

1. How Do I Avoid Losing My Safari History?

You can easily avoid the loss of your Safari history by always making sure to sync your bookmarks and browsing history to your iCloud account. Follow these simple steps to turn this feature on permanently;

• Access the Settings on your iOS device.Tap on your Apple ID at the top.
• Tap “iCloud” and scroll down to find “Safari.” Turn it on and all your bookmarks and browsing history will be synced with iCloud.

2. How Long Does Safari Keep History on iPhone?

Safari on Mac will keep your history for up to a year while Safari for iOS will keep your history for up to 30 days. Apple does this to help you restore your history easily in case of accidental deletion.

3. How Do I Recover Deleted Safari History on iPad?

All the solutions that we have outlined above are also applicable when you want to recover the missing Safari history on your iPad.

4. Why Does My Safari History Delete itself?

While your iPhone can store Safari history for up to 30 days, the device may delete some of the Safari history automatically for several reasons including available storage space, how much you access Safari, iCloud storage, the number of sites visited, and other problems.

5. Can I Transfer Safari History between iOS devices?

Yes. You can use the same iCloud account to sync Safari browser history across multiple devices and therefore easily transfer the history to any one of the devices connected to the same iCloud account.

Conclusion

If you find that you have deleted some of your Safari history, there are several solutions that you can use to recover and restore your browsing history. All the methods we have outlined above can help you in this regard, although we recommend taking steps to ensure you don’t lose the data in the first place.