How To Remove a Specific Site’s History and Cookies in Chrome

Evan Gower February 22, 2021

While the most common way of dealing with browser history is deleting it in bulk, Chrome also allows its users to hand-pick which sites they want to remove from their history. This way, you retain the important sites and cookies and get rid of the ones you don’t want in your browser history.

Remove a Specific Site from History in Chrome

Both the desktop and mobile versions of the browser let you pick and choose which items to delete and which to keep. Let’s take a closer look at how to remove specific sites from Chrome’s history.

Computer

Deleting specific sites from Chrome’s history on a desktop or laptop computer is simple, but it takes a bit more time than on a smartphone or tablet. If a certain site keeps popping up in auto-fill forms around the web or Google keeps suggesting it when you type in the search bar, here’s what to do.

Press the “Ctrl” and “H” keys simultaneously if you’re on a Windows computer, or the “Cmd” and “Y” keys if you’re using a Mac. Alternatively, you can click on the three vertical dots in the upper-right corner of the screen, hover over the “History” option, and click the “History” option in the side menu.
Chrome will then display the list of all searches you made and all sites you visited since the last time you deleted browsing data.
Browse for the site you want to remove. When you find it, tick the box on its left side.
Next, click the icon with three dots on the site’s right side.
Select the “Remove from history” option.

When you select a site, a bar will appear at the top of the browser window, notifying you that you’ve selected an item from the list. Instead of clicking the icon with three vertical dots, you can also click the “Delete” button located on the right side of the bar. If you select multiple items, you can also delete them this way.

Android and iOS

Removing a specific site from your history on an Android device is super easy. Here’s how it is done.

Launch Chrome from your phone or tablet’s Home screen.
When the browser opens, tap on the “Main Menu” icon in the top-right corner of the screen.
From the Menu, tap on History.
In the list of your searches and pages you visited, find the one you want to delete and tap the “X” icon next to it.

To remove a specific site from Chrome’s history on your iPhone or iPad, follow these steps.

Launch Chrome from the Home screen.
Tap the “More” button in the bottom-right corner of the screen.
Select “History”.
Tap the “Edit” button at the bottom of the screen.
Browse for the item or items you want to remove and check them.
Tap the “Delete” button.
Tap the “Done” button at the top-right corner.

Remove a Specific Cookie from History in Chrome

Sites often use cookies to track your traffic around the web and serve you ads. If you want to get rid of a particularly pesky ad, you should delete the cookie from the site that’s serving the ad. Here’s how to do it in Chrome.

Computer

Follow these steps to remove a specific cookie from Chrome on your desktop or laptop computer.

Open Chrome.
Go to Settings > Privacy and Security> Site Settings > Cookies and site data > See all cookies and site data.
Find the cookie you want to delete and click the “Trashcan” icon to its right.

Android and iOS

While you can delete individual cookies on desktop and laptop systems, you can’t do so on Android and iOS devices. The only solution here is to delete all cookies through deleting your browsing data. Here’s how to do it on an Android device.

Launch Chrome.
Tap the “Main Menu” icon in the top-right corner of the screen.
Next, tap the “Settings” tab.
Select “Privacy and security”.
Next, select the “Clear browsing data” option.
Choose the time range and select the components of the browsing history you want to delete. Make sure to select the cookies.
Tap the “Clear data” button.
Tap “Clear”.

iOS users should follow these steps.

Launch Chrome.
Tap the “More” button in the bottom-right corner.
Select “Settings”.
Next, choose the “Privacy” tab.
Select the “Clear browsing data” option.
Tick the “Site Data” and “Cookies” options.
Tap the “Clear Browsing Data” button.
Tap “Clear Browsing Data” to confirm.
Tap “Done”.

Final Entry

When it comes to the browsing data and site settings, the desktop version of Chrome allows its users complete freedom to choose what they want to retain and what they want to discard. On the other side, mobile users can delete individual sites, but can’t remove individual cookies.