Private browsing in Safari is made to not store the user’s data in the browser history. It means that you will not find the website data, passwords, cache files in the browsing history if websites were opened in the private mode. But in reality, this mode is not as secure as it seems. In this article, we will look at several ways on how to see private browsing history in Safari on iPhone.
To begin with, let’s see what is the private browsing in Safari. This is a special feature which allows a user to anonymously visit websites.
To activate it, you need:
- Go to Safari
- Open the tabs window
- Choose the “Private” mode. A new browser window appears.
- To open a new tab, click on the plus sign
When you need to go back to the normal browsing mode, follow these steps:
- Open the tabs window
- Turn off the “Private” mode
You are back to the normal browser window.
Now you know how to activate the private browsing mode in Safari.
But what if you want to view the list of websites that were visited in the private mode?
The easiest way how to see private browsing history in Safari on iPhone
Here are the instructions how to view the private browsing history in Safari on your iPhone
- Open the iPhone settings
- Go to the “Safari” tab
- Open the “Advanced” tab
- Go to the “Website Data”
After some waiting time, all the sites that you visit most often will load in front of you. Safari developers offer the opportunity to use the search function if you have to find a specific site in the browsing history. To do this, just enter the website name in a special window:
Here you will see the website data received not only from the normal browsing activity but also from the private one.
However, this is not the best way to see your private browsing history in Safari. It’s because the data is not fully displayed. If you want to find a specific link to a website, it is better to use another method.
How to view private browsing history in Safari on iPhone using iTunes
The following method will tell you how to view deleted browser history. For this we will use the data from iTunes Backup. And here are the steps you have to take:
- Open your iPhone settings
- Go to the “General” tab
- Find the “Reset” option
- Select “Erase All Content and Settings”
- Select the first item “Back up Then Erase” in the pop-up window, otherwise the device will create a new backup and it will be impossible to restore the deleted browser history.
- Enter your password
- Confirm the action
When you erase all content and settings from your iPhone, iTunes Backup will restore the latest backup of the phone. You can recover the browser history only if backup information matches the date of the visit to the desired website.
We’ve covered a few ways how to see private browsing history in Safari on the iPhone. Make sure to try any method that is convenient for you. Follow the instructions and you can easily view your browsing history, even if it was done in a private browsing mode.
