The web browser on your Android phone collects a lot of information from the websites you visit on a daily basis, most of which is not necessary for the phone to have. Your browser collects and saves a little bit of information each time you visit your favorite website to read articles, purchase, or do most other functions. In some situations, this information may be useful. It’s what keeps you signed into accounts and enables you to load websites you visit often fast. That’s good, but your browser’s cache and cookies include a lot of unnecessary information that may potentially compromise your privacy.

Reasons for routinely clearing your cache and cookies

A large portion of the content that accumulates in your cache and cookies is just garbage. A portion of it could have come from websites you’ve just been to once. Others seem to be actively monitoring your online surfing habits in order to display ads relevant to the products or services you are purchasing or seeing. For example, I often see advertising for online eyewear sales after perusing a few retailers or ads from Amazon 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. To ensure that your phone isn’t accumulating unnecessary data, clearing your cache is a slight annoyance that will need you to log back into some of your favorite websites.

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.

Enlarge Image of Chrome’s “Clear browsing data” option on Android
Chrome on Android’s “Clear browsing data” option.
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, then selecting History, and finally selecting Delete browsing data, you may clear your cookies and cache from inside the Android version of Google Chrome. This may also be accessed by selecting Delete browsing data under Privacy and Security in the Chrome Settings menu.

For deleting your browsing history, cookies, site data, and cached files and pictures, Chrome also has Basic and Advanced options. Using the Time range drop-down, you may choose to erase the full history or only a portion of it, ranging from the last 24 hours to the previous four weeks. You may also delete site settings, autofill form data, and saved passwords by tapping Advanced. Once you have chosen what you want to remove, press the blue “Clear data” button. If Chrome determines that certain websites are “important” to you, you may get an extra prompt; if so, you will have the opportunity to affirm before clearing. Otherwise, Chrome will clean as you said right away if you don’t get the popup.

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

Internet by Samsung
The Samsung Internet Enlarge Image’s “Clear data” and “Clear cache” choices
Samsung Internet’s “Clear data” and “Clear cache” choices.
Mike Sorrentino/CNET screenshot
Clearing the cache and cookie data in your Samsung Internet browser may be done in two distinct methods. Either the browser itself or the Settings app on your phone may be used to clean.

To clean the Samsung Internet browser app, first hit the Settings icon, which is indicated by three horizontal lines in the bottom right corner. Then, scroll down to Personal browsing data, and then select Delete browsing data to bring up a choice of alternatives to remove. You may delete any combination of your browsing history, search history, form history, cookies, site data, cached files and pictures, passwords, and autofill forms. You will be prompted to confirm your selections before deleting after selecting Delete data.

You have the greatest control over what you want to remove when you go via the browser app itself. Open the Settings app, press on Apps, scroll down to and hit Samsung Internet, and then choose Storage and Cache to access comparable choices from your phone’s settings menu.

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

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

Firefox by Mozilla
The Mozilla Firefox Android app allows you to clean the cache, much like Google Chrome does. Tap the again button, which is once again represented by three vertically aligned dots, to bring up this feature. After that, choose Settings and then Delete browsing data by scrolling down.

The “Delete browsing data” option in Android’s Mozilla Firefox
Expand the Picture
The Android version of Mozilla Firefox’s “Delete browsing data” option.
Mike Sorrentino/CNET screenshot
Firefox has the most choices of the three browsers we’re talking about here when it comes to the remove browsing data menu. You may remove your browsing history, any open tabs, site permissions, and even your Downloads folder. These choices accompany 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 option for users who would like not to retain their browser history once they have finished 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 close 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.