Want to highlight a helpful answer? Upvote!

Did someone help you, or did an answer or User Tip resolve your issue? Upvote by selecting the upvote arrow. Your feedback helps others! Learn more about when to upvote >

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

Can i disable history being stored on safari?

Hi,

I would like to know if it's possible for me to surf the net and for history of visited web pages to not be stored? The lowest i've set it to is deletion after one day. I'm aware of the 'Private Browsing' functionality that exists but it appears that this doesn't always remain switched on, it switches off automatically.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

Mac mini, Mac OS X (10.5.1)

Posted on May 26, 2008 5:27 AM

Reply
Question marked as Best reply

Posted on Jun 1, 2008 8:10 AM

Yes, this is possible, and very easy. Before you do this, clear your history in Safari and quit.

Navigate to ~/Library/Safari
In that directory, you'll see a file named History.plist; Get Info on it and check the box labeled "Locked".

You're done. Now when you surf the web, Safari will temporarily write the history to this file, then erase it when you Quit.

Mulder
5 replies
Question marked as Best reply

Jun 1, 2008 8:10 AM in response to naveed1978

Yes, this is possible, and very easy. Before you do this, clear your history in Safari and quit.

Navigate to ~/Library/Safari
In that directory, you'll see a file named History.plist; Get Info on it and check the box labeled "Locked".

You're done. Now when you surf the web, Safari will temporarily write the history to this file, then erase it when you Quit.

Mulder

May 27, 2008 5:52 AM in response to naveed1978

Private Browsing is a good way to prevent items from being stored in the History. It will remain switched on until you quit Safari, so you need to remember to enable it each time you launch the application. There's no other way within Safari to block items from being stored in the History.

Alternatively, you can use a 3rd party utility to alter the "inaccessible" settings. For example, Onyx allows you to set the number of pages stored to zero.

Hope this helps...

Can i disable history being stored on safari?

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple ID.