Clearing Safari website data does not delete everything - iPhone

The issue has definitely got worse with 10.3.3.

Logging bugs at http://www.apple.com/feedback has not a positive effect yet, as I've logged a bug for each iOS version that had this issue.

And you are not correct that Apple does not read this forum; note that there have been many Apple Community Specialist replies during the past several years .

Hello,

I am having the same issue as others here, as some Website Data isn't deleting.

I have heard from another user (I have not tried this myself yet) that going to:

Settings > General > Reset > Reset All Settings, fixed it for them.

I would suggest that everyone experiencing this to leave a detailed report to Apple so they are aware of this. Include things such as when it started or ways you've tried to fix it. This will all help Apple understand what may be going on.

Here's the link:

iPhone Feedback - Apple

Website data won't clear no matter what

2 sites wayfair.com and Costco.com won't clear

period!

Interestingly, I have found a case where 'Individually swiping left on the persisting data and selecting "delete"' doesn't work. Does anyone have any ideas how to clear this persistent unwanted browser remnant?

You're not going to like this reply.

Yes, many people are having the exact same problem. After approximately 3-4 hours of trying every solution I could find in these forums and not having any success, I took my MacBook Pro to an Apple Genius Bar. For nearly 1.5 hours, they tried nearly every solution they could think of and running diagnostics on hardware and software, then restarting the computer, etc - all without success. Finally, one of the top guns believed regardless of the diagnostic results, there may be a software glitch some where and suggests wiping the entire computer clean and reinstalling and starting all over.

I took the computer home and reinstalled my backup data. Guess what? That did not solve the problem. Removed website data reappears within seconds.

Not very encouraging. The techs at the Genius Bar also agreed that as the web site data list continues to grow, it could eventually slow the speed of the computer.

I found iOS 10.3.3 did NOT delete all the cookies on my iPhone 7.

At the time of the upgrade there were pages of cookies — most showing 0 bytes. After the upgrade, but before opening Safari or any apps, I clicked Settings>Safari>Clear History and Website Data. When I then went to Settings>Safari>Advanced>Website Data, I found the cookies on the left panel still remained.

I then clicked on Settings>Safari>Advanced>Website Data>Clear All Website Data. When I reopened Website Data the same cookies in the left panel still remained.

I then deleted each cookie manually and closed Website Data. However, when I reopened it, the cookies in the right panel had reappeared. Again I deleted them manually, but when I reopened Website Data, the cookies in the right panel had still reappeared.

Something permits intrusion on the Safari cookie folder. I have never banked with Citibank or any affiliate of which I know. I do have apps for the other cookies. Perhaps some have something to do with Apple Pay

(Continued from above - it was sent accidentally) Redbox, not Redbook.

When I then checked my cookies, several unrecognized entries, and some unvisited sites I did recognize, existed again.

Give them the privacy choices Safari now gives us, it seems using content blocking apps may be the only solution. Three that I’m testing are Adblock Plus, 1Blocker and iCareFone.

Lawrence, I hear what you’re saying and I have read the articles. However my iPhone 7 Safari cookie listing shows third party cookies are still being added for sites I have not visited, even though I completely deleted everything a couple days ago after installing iOS 11

. The pic below shows one of many pages of cookies on my iPhone . Those marked in red are sites I did NOT visit.

How do we explain that?

These are the problem websites. No matter what I do, they persist. And since they have been there, I have had those pop ups. I also started getting phishing emails from “Apple” and I have never had these issues before...not until I was unable to delete these websites.

I recommend you fill out this form as someone else was mentioning on the forum thread named (Gus) this might help Apple to find a solution quickly. The more reports they have of this software bug the faster they can patch it. I tried restoring my iPhone to factory settings still didn't work so now I gonna try resetting all settings and see if that works.

Good luck

Apple Recommendation Form: https://www.apple.com/feedback/iphone.html

Raparris31 wrote:

Thanks for the info, I'm not familiar with the rules in beta.

Does anyone think Apple with solve this website data problem, because the list keeps getting bigger and bigger.

No one here knows Apple's future plans and speculation is prohibited by the Terms of Use to which we all agreed when we signed up. What you should do is let Apple know this is a problem for you. They don't read here.

Submit feedback here:

http://www.apple.com/feedback

Contact Support using the link at the top right of every page of these forums.

The more people who let Apple know that they consider this a problem, the more attention Apple is going to pay.

Best of luck.

Same problem occurs on the Mac OS X version of Safari.

• macOS Siera 10.12.4
• Safari Version 10.1 (12603.1.30.0.34)

Steps to Reproduce

• Go to Safari > Preferences... > Privacy > Manage Website Data...
• A list of websites appear, usually the datatype is "Databases"
• Click "Remove All..."

Expected Behavior

Website data list is removed and list is empty until websites that store data are loaded again

Actual Behavior

• The list is temporarily replaced with a status message "Loading Website Data..."
• Then the list is repopulated with the same website data, this is without visiting those websites again.

Yes, it probably hasn't been addressed yet, because it isn't a critical or even an important bug.

Years ago I worked for a large computer manufacturer. We had a bug tracking system with just 4 categories:

1. Critical - Prevents users from using all or part of the application
2. Severe - Similar to Critical, but there is a published workaround or temporary patch
3. Annoying - Does not affect operation of the application, but it bothers users
4. Interesting - Does not affect anything, but it looks funny

Apple's system has many more categories, of course, but this one is somewhere between 3 & 4. The reason I say that is explained in this excellent article: http://www.thesafemac.com/the-myth-of-the-dangerous-cookie/

I think that the folks who create website data code have found a line of code that makes an iOS device hold the website data because "it is still necessary and can not be deleted." It was first just one site, then two, and now five so word is getting around. My guess is that it has something to do with Apple Analytics, but that is just a guess.