Safari not working, cannot delete history or clear cookies and data

Have you tried closing Safari completely via the task bar and seeing if it works when you re-open it ? From the home screen (i.e. not with Safari 'open' on-screen) double-click the home button to bring up the taskbar, then press and hold any of the apps on the taskbar for a couple of seconds or so until they start shaking, then press the '-' in the top left of the Safari app to close it, and touch any part of the screen above the taskbar so as to stop the shaking and close the taskbar.

If that doesn't work then you could try a reset if you haven't already done so : press and hold both the sleep and home buttons for about 10 to 15 seconds (ignore the red slider), after which the Apple logo should appear - you won't lose any content, it's the iPad equivalent of a reboot.

There is not much more to suggest. You have tried the classic recommended steps to get Safari out of that "gray screen" issue and none of it has worked.

If you haven't done so already - quit all apps and restart the iPad. If that doesn't work, reboot the iPad.

Go to the home screen first by tapping the home button. Double tap the home button and the task bar will appear with all of your recent/open apps displayed at the bottom. Tap and hold down on any app icon until it begins to wiggle. Tap the minus ➖ sign in the upper left corner of the app that you want to close. Tap the home button or anywhere above the task bar. Restart the iPad.

Restart the iPad by holding down on the sleep button until the red slider appears and then slide to shut off. To power up hold the sleep button until the Apple logo appears and let go of the button.

Reboot the iPad by holding down on the sleep and home buttons at the same time for about 10-15 seconds until the Apple Logo appears - ignore the red slider - let go of the buttons.

I know this post is a year old but the same thing happened to me with my iPad Mini. It turned out to be a Restriction Setting for Safari. Go to Settings\General\Restrictions\ALLOWED CONTENT: Websites. Make sure 'All Websites' are allowed. If not, Safari won't let you clear the History.

Many thanks. Couldn't understand why tabs were greyed out.

You are the BEST thank you Robby! I came to this because I was stuck. So weird!
Thanks

Thank you SO much! Even though this is an old post, it was the perfect answer even for my iPhone 5. I could not find a good answer anywhere & this worked perfectly. Seems kinda dumb that just because you restrict adult websites on your phone, you can't clear the history for websites you have visited!! One of the many issues with Apple.

Thanks again!

Thank you for this. So simple.