How to Delete All Bookmarks on iPhone

Evan Gower February 19, 2019

Bookmarks are a very handy feature that every modern web browser has. They let you save the most important websites that you think you’ll want to revisit in the future. They’re very convenient, so a majority of people use them on a regular basis.

If you’re one of them, you know how fast you might get swamped with bookmarks. This makes them hard to browse and undermines the very purpose of this feature. This is why managing your bookmarks properly is essential to ensuring they’re as easy to use as they should be.

This includes deleting the bookmarks that you don’t think you’ll need anymore. There are a few reasons to do this.

Why Delete Bookmarks on iPhone?

Just like everything else on your iPhone, bookmarks take up storage. Safari’s data builds up, and it can get quite heavy after some time. You might not notice this at first, but there’s a high chance that the browser will take up quite a lot of space on your iPhone at some point.

This is the first reason why you should delete bookmarks. The same goes for search history, cookies, and any other seemingly small pieces of data. Even though none of them take up a lot of space by themselves, they build up and bloat Safari.

As you probably know, being low on storage can make your iPhone lag. Even with the newer models that offer a ton of it, heavy users might experience this at one point or another. Obviously, there are much larger items to delete than your bookmarks, such as photos or apps, but removing bookmarks might help your iPhone, or at least Safari, run smoother.

Many people don’t know that bookmarks can also be responsible for the distribution of malware, which is another strong reason to delete your bookmarks. We’re often warned about sketchy iMessages, emails, or apps, but the thing that many people overlook is web browsing. There are many types of malware that can infect your phone without you downloading anything.

While bookmarks can’t carry malicious files, they can link to seemingly legitimate websites that will start downloading malware to your iPhone as soon as you visit them. Alternatively, clicking on them can execute JavaScript functions that may affect the functionality of your phone. For this reason, removing bookmarks is your safest bet, especially if you’ve visited some unsecure webpages.

As you can see, something as simple as removing bookmarks can yield more benefits than you might think. If you want to know how to do this, take a look at the following sections.

Removing Bookmarks from Within Safari

The easiest way to remove bookmarks is by doing it from within the browser. This is a fairly simple process, but it might not be as obvious as some would expect. Here’s what you have to do:

Open Safari.
Tap the Bookmarks icon at the bottom of the screen.
Here you’ll see all your bookmarks. Unfortunately, there’s no option to select and delete multiple bookmarks at once, so you’ll have to remove each of them separately. To do this, tap the Edit button, then tap the red minus button, and select Delete at the bottom-right of the screen.

That’s it! As you can see, this is very easy to do and you can remove the bookmarks that you don’t need in no time. It would be a lot more convenient if there was an option to select more of them at once, but for now, this is the way to go.

Use Third-Party Software

While removing bookmarks from within Safari is fairly effective, they can still be retrieved using a recovery tool. Even though it will be enough for most users who just want to organize their library, users that care a lot about security shouldn’t rely on this method alone.

If you’re among them, going with third-party software might be a good idea. It’s the only way to make sure that your bookmarks are gone for good.

There are many options out there, all of them promising to do the same thing. However, you might want to do some research to find out whether they’re secure and effective. Once you’re certain that the software is legit, you can use it to get rid of your bookmarks permanently.

The Wrap Up

Now that you know how to delete bookmarks on iPhone, you can go ahead and choose between the two available options. If you’re just looking to get a better organized list, going with the first method will be enough.

Still, if you want to make sure that there’s no way your bookmarks can be recovered, additional software might be a good idea. If you decide to do this, remember to choose it carefully so that you won’t have to worry about unwanted bookmarks anymore.