Fastest Way to Clear Recent Browsing History in Every Browser
Look, we’re not here to judge or ask questions. You need to clear your recent browsing history – and quickly. Lucky for you, we can help. Whether you are using Chrome, Edge, Firefox, or Brave, there is a keyboard shortcut to help you delete your most recent web history as quickly as possible if you need it for reasons outside of ours.
Clearing past hour history from major web browsers
Most web browsers allow you to delete the last hour of web browsing. This is usually the best option for those who want to delete what they were looking for, but not data older than this age. If you are looking for something with an even narrower time range, we have a solution for you later.
The following keyboard shortcuts will work in Google Chrome, Firefox, Microsoft Edge, Brave, and Opera:
- Windows : Ctrl + Shift + Delete.
- Mac : Command + Shift + Delete.
- Chromebook : Ctrl + Shift + Backspace.
Once you use this shortcut in your web browser, you will be taken to the web history manager. Depending on your browser, deleting the last hour of Internet history might be the default, but if it isn’t, just find the time range option, click it and choose the option that will remove the last hour of browsing.
Delete history in the last hour from Safari
If you’re using Safari on your Mac, you might be wondering why we didn’t mention your browser in this article. For some reason, Apple makes one of the few major browsers that doesn’t have a keyboard shortcut to clear your web search history.
Fortunately, macOS makes it easy to customize a keyboard shortcut for just about any application. Just go to System Preferences > Keyboard , click Shortcuts, then Application Shortcuts , and then click the (+).
System Preferences will open the Quick Access Tool. Click All Apps , then select Safari . Enter ” Clear History … ” (with ellipses) in the Menu Title text box, then enter whatever keyboard shortcut you want. For some reason macOS rejects the default Command + Shift + Delete shortcut, so I chose Command + Shift + Return.
Once you click Add , your shortcut is ready to go. Go back to Safari, give it a try, and clear your browsing history for the last hour.
Delete history from Google in the last 15 minutes
While we’re focusing on desktop web browsers here, it would be remiss not to mention Google’s new “Delete Last 15 Minutes” feature. As the name suggests, when using the Google app on your phone, you can immediately delete the last 15 minutes of internet activity. Since most browsers only allow you to delete history until the last hour, this feature is very important.
To use it, tap your profile icon in the upper right corner of the home page of the Google app. If you have a recent browsing history, you will see the Delete Last 15 Minutes option in this window. Tap it once and Google will start deleting your history. However, you have a short time to abandon this decision by clicking the option “Cancel” button that appears at the bottom of the screen.