5 Ways to View & Recover Deleted Safari History on iPhone/iPad

User Concern

“Is it possible to recover deleted Safari history on iPhone? I want to retrieve deleted history from around 3 months earlier.”

Safari is the default browser for iOS devices and Mac computers, which is widely used among Apple users. While searching the internet with Safari, it usually keeps the browsing history and bookmarks for picking up what has been read.

What if you have accidentally deleted your browsing history, or it is suddenly gone without a record? Don't worry. You still have a chance to get back the deleted Safari history. Keep reading to find out how to recover deleted Safari history on iPhone with or without backup.

Can Safari History Be Recovered Once It Is Deleted?

Yes, you can recover deleted browsing history from Safari, but it's not guaranteed. When you clear your browsing history in Safari, it's not permanently erased from your iPhone or iPad. Instead, it's temporarily stored in a different part of your device's memory for a limited period. This storage period typically lasts around one month for iPhone/iPad and up to one year for Mac. If you act quickly, you sitll have a good chance to recover deleted Safari history.

Check iPhone Settings for Deleted Safari History

Before you try any other methods listed below, first check your iPhone itself. The simplest way of recovering your browsing history is to find them in Safari Website Data under Settings. Here's how to do it:

1. On your iPhone, open the Settings app. Scroll down to find Safari and tap on it.
2. On the next screen, scroll to the bottom and tap on the Advanced option.
3. Now choose the Website Data and you'll view the domain of the deleted browsing history.

The drawback of this method:

This method will only show you the root domain of your visited sites. You won't be able to find a specific page you've viewed before. Also, this method only works as long as you don't clear cookies and history from Safari.

Recover Safari History on iPhone without Backup (Recommend)

If there is no backup of your deleted Safari history, FoneGeek iPhone Data Recovery is highly recommended to you. As the world's 1st iPhone and iPad data recovery software, it has helped tens of thousands of iOS users find deleted or lost data. What makes it so popular? The answer is its reliability and function:

• Offers 3 recovery modes, and you can choose the one that best fits your needs to recover deleted Safari history.
• Preview the  deleted Safari history for free before the recovery process and selectively recover only the browsing history you need.
• Supports to recover many other types of data like messages, contacts, photos, videos, notes, WhatsApp messages, Viber, etc.
• Works well on all iPhone models and iOS versions, even the latest iPhone 15/14 and iOS 17/16.

Follow the steps below to recover deleted safari history on your iPhone without backup:

Step 1. Connect iPhone to Computer

To start with, install the program on your Windows PC or Mac and launch it. Choose Recover Data from iOS Devices and then connect your iPhone to the computer using a USB cable.

Step 2. Select Safari History to Scan

Once the program detects your iPhone, choose Safari History or any other type of files you would like to recover, and then click Scan to begin scanning.

Step 3. Recover Deleted Safari History

After the scan, click Safari History from the category list to preview the recoverable Safari history. Then select the ones you need and click the Recover to PC button to save the deleted Safari history to your computer.

Recover Deleted Safari History on iPhone from Backup

Option 1. Recover Safari History from iCloud Web

You are allowed to recover only Safari history from iCloud's official site as long as you have turned on iCloud Auto Syncing on your iPhone. Follow these simple steps:

1. Sign in to the iCloud official site from any browser using your iCloud account.
2. Navigate to the Advanced option and scroll down to click Restore Bookmarks.
3. Choose an archive of bookmarks you want and click on Restore.

The drawback of this method:

Only the deleted Safari history within the last 30 days can be retrieved. Also, the existing Safari bookmarks on your iPhone will be replaced and erased, which might cause new data loss.

Option 2. Restore iPhone Safari History from iCloud Backup

If you have backed up your iPhone to iCloud, restoring your iPhone from the iCloud backup is also one of the feasible choices you can try. Doing this will get back all the app data, including the deleted Safari history. But you need to factory reset the iPhone before performing the restore.

1. Open Settings and click on General, scroll down to tap on "Transfer or Reset iPhone and select Erase All Content and Settings.
2. Follow the instructions to set up your iPhone until you reach the page of Apps & Data. Then, choose Restore from iCloud Backup.
3. Sign in to iCloud and choose a backup to restore the device. All data in the backup file, including the deleted Safari history, will come back.

The drawback of this method:

You're not allowed to preview the deleted files and selectively recover what you need only. What's worse, all the existing data on your iPhone will be erased and you'll lose your latest data that are not included in the iCloud backup.

Selectively Recover Deleted Safari History on iPhone from iCloud Backup

With FoneGeek iPhone Data Recovery, you're able to preview and selectively recover deleted Safari history from iCloud backup.

1. Run FoneGeek iPhone Data Recovery and switch to Recover Data from iCloud.
2. Sign in to iCloud with your Apple ID and password. Then select the data types you want to restore and click on Scan.
3. After you've downloaded the iCloud data, preview and select the data you need, then click on Recover to PC.

Option 3. Recover Deleted Safari History from iTunes Backup

If you have made an iTunes/Finder backup before you deleted the Safari history, you can also recover the deleted browsing history by restoring your iPhone from the backup. However, to restore the backed-up data, you will have to erase the existing data on your iPhone.

1. Connect your iPhone to your computer and launch iTunes or Finder.
2. Click on the iPhone icon when it shows up, and then choose Restore Backup.
3. Select the backup file that contains your deleted Safari history and click on Restore.

The drawback of this method:

Same as iCloud, preview and selective recovery are not supported. Restoring from iTunes backup might also lead to data loss as any new files added to your iPhone since the backup will be replaced and overwritten.

Selectively Recover Deleted Safari History on iPhone from iTunes Backup

Again, we recommend you use FoneGeek iPhone Data Recovery to recover deleted Safari history from iTunes backup without erasing any data.

1. Launch FoneGeek iPhone Data Recovery and choose the option of Recover Data from iTunes Backup.
2. Select the iTunes backup file you want and click Next. Then select Safari History and click on Scan.
3. After the scan, you can preview the Safari history and selectively recover those you need by clicking on Recover.

FAQs about iPhone Safari History Recovery

Q1. How long does Safari keep your browsing history?

This question has confused a lot of iPhone users. Actually, there is a definite answer to this question: your Mac can keep your browsing history for as long as a year, while iPhone and iPad keep browsing history for a month. This is what is demonstrated on Apple’s official site.

Q2. How to recover deleted Safari history on an iPad?

There are different methods for recovering deleted Safari history on your iPhone, most of which apply to iPads. You can try using FoneGeek iPhone Data Recovery, which is compatible with major iOS devices, including iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.

Q3. Where is Safari history stored on your Mac?

All the Safari history you can see on your Mac is stored in the ~/Library/Safari/ folder.

• Just click on Finder > Go > Go to Folder.
• Then, enter the path in the textbox and click on OK to open the History.db file.

Q4. How to avoid losing Safari history?

To avoid the possible loss of Safari history, you can enable Safari in iCloud preferences. In this way, the Safari data will be backed up to the cloud automatically.

Besides that, you can also use some tools such as FoneGeek iOS Backup & Restore to back up iPhone data to your computer selectively or fully.

Conclusion

This article has outlined all feasible solutions to recover deleted Safari history on your iPhone. You can pick the one that works best for you. We strongly recommend FoneGeek iPhone Data Recovery for its easy-to-use interface and ablility to recover Safari history with or without backup.