Every day, your Android phone gathers fresh information from all the websites you visit. Some of the information is useful since it keeps you logged in or speeds up the loading of the websites you visit most frequently. However, a lot of data merely takes up space in the cache and cookies of your browser and may even pose a privacy concern. However, cleaning things up is simple with the majority of Android web browsers, whether you use Google Chrome, Samsung Internet, or Mozilla Firefox. In certain situations, you can even choose to delete all of your cookies and cache or only a portion of your most recent information.

Playing now: iPhone 15 Pro Max vs. Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra vs. Galaxy S23 Ultra

Reasons for routinely clearing your cache and cookies

A large portion of the content that accumulates in your cache and cookies is simply garbage. A portion of it could have come from websites you’ve only been to once. Others appear to be actively monitoring your browser history in order to provide ads relevant to the things you are purchasing or watching online. For example, I frequently see advertising for online eyewear sales after perusing a few retailers or Amazon ads that coincidentally display the items that were most recently in my shopping basket.

This is why it’s a good idea to periodically clean your cache. It enables you to delete information from your phone that you don’t need, particularly if your phone has cookies from an unidentified data tracker. A small annoyance is clearing your cache: Restoring access to some of your favorite websites will be necessary, but it’s worth it to ensure that your phone isn’t accumulating unnecessary data.

Depending on the kind of phone and web browser app you’re using, the instructions vary significantly. We’ll explain how to remove this data for Mozilla’s Firefox browser, Samsung’s internet browser (typically the default on the Galaxy phone series), and Google’s Chrome browser (the default for many Android phones, such as the Google Pixel line) below. If you need to clean out a few Apple devices as well, you can also look at our separate instruction on how to clear the cache on an iPhone web browser.

Chrome by Google

By first touching the More button, which is represented by a column of three dots in the upper right corner of the browser, and then selecting Delete browsing data, you may clear your cookies and cache from inside the Android version of Google Chrome. You may choose a time range from the Last 15 minutes of data to All Time using the little option that appears. You can select “Delete data” and be finished if the choices in this short menu are enough. On the other hand, you can select More choices if you like more sophisticated settings.

You may further choose what to remove using the expanded remove browsing data menu that appears. It includes the following options: browser history, cookies and site data, cached pictures and files, tabs, saved passwords, autofill form data, and site settings. To choose how far back you want to remove the data, you can also utilize the Time range drop-down. Once you’ve decided what you want to remove, press the “Delete data” button.

If Chrome determines that a certain website is “important” to you, you may be presented with an additional prompt, and you will have the opportunity to affirm before clearing. Chrome will quickly clean as you specified if you don’t get that prompt.

Read more: Use This Privacy-Focused Browser Instead of Google Chrome

Samsung Internet Enlarge Picture

Samsung Internet’s “Clear data” and “Clear cache” choices.

You have two options for clearing the cache and cookie data on your Samsung web browser. You have two options: use the Settings app on your phone or clean from the browser itself.

To clean when using the Samsung Internet browser app, hit the Settings icon (shown by three horizontal lines) in the bottom right corner. Then, scroll down to Personal browsing data and tap it. Finally, tap Delete browsing data to bring up a choice of alternatives to remove. Any combination of your browsing history, search history, cookies, site data, cached files and pictures, passwords, and autofill forms can be deleted. You will be prompted to confirm your selections before deleting after selecting Delete data.

You have the most control over what you want to remove when you go through the browser app itself. Open the Settings app, choose Applications, then scroll down to and select Samsung Internet, followed by Storage and Cache, if you wish to access comparable features from your phone’s settings menu.

You have distinct choices to clear cache and clear storage on the Storage tab. While selecting Clear storage displays a warning that all of the application’s data, including files, settings, accounts, and databases, would be permanently erased, selecting Clear cache will instantly clear the cache. This “going nuclear” strategy should erase all leftover data, allowing you to restart the Samsung web browser as if it were brand-new, even though it doesn’t mention cookies.

See also: Modify These Android Preferences to Maximize Your Phone’s Performance

The Mozilla Firefox Android app allows you to clean the cache, much like Google Chrome does. Tap the “More” button, which is once more represented by three vertically aligned dots, to bring up this feature. Next, select Settings, then select Delete browsing data by scrolling down.

The “Delete browsing data” option in Android’s Mozilla Firefox.

In addition to deleting your browsing history, site permissions, open tabs, and even your Downloads folder, Firefox offers the most options among the three browsers we’re talking about here under the Delete browsing data menu. These choices are included with cookies, side data, and cached files and pictures.

You may be more particular about the kind of data you want to delete, but you can’t choose a time period like you can with Chrome.

See also: How to Quickly Adjust Browser Privacy Settings in Firefox, Chrome, and Safari

Additionally, Firefox offers a different choice for users who would like not to retain their browser history once they have completed using the program. There is a Delete browsing data on quit option in Settings that tells Firefox to remove any combination of these settings each time you exit the program. If you want to keep your browser clean and, for example, prevent unintentionally giving your browsing history to someone who could have stolen or otherwise accessed your phone, this function is helpful.