Clearing UIWebView's Cache in Swift

Question

I have a UIWebView inside my app. This UIWebView needs to be reloaded fully (i.e. clear all cache of images/HTML/cookies etc.) every time when viewDidLoad.

Answer 1

Swift 4

func clear(cache: Bool, cookies: Bool) {
    if cache { clearCache() }
    if cookies { clearCookies() }
}

fileprivate func clearCache() {
    URLCache.shared.removeAllCachedResponses()
    URLCache.shared.diskCapacity = 0
    URLCache.shared.memoryCapacity = 0
}

fileprivate func clearCookies() {
    let cookieStorage = HTTPCookieStorage.shared

    guard let cookies = cookieStorage.cookies else { return }

    for cookie in cookies {
        cookieStorage.deleteCookie(cookie)
    }
}

If the desired outcome is to have a private browsing experience, you may also want to set the websiteDataStore property on your WKWebViewConfiguration object per the below.

    let configuration = WKWebViewConfiguration()
    configuration.websiteDataStore = WKWebsiteDataStore.nonPersistent()
    ...

Answer 2

Swift 3.

URLCache.shared.removeAllCachedResponses()
URLCache.shared.diskCapacity = 0
URLCache.shared.memoryCapacity = 0

if let cookies = HTTPCookieStorage.shared.cookies { 
    for cookie in cookies {
        HTTPCookieStorage.shared.deleteCookie(cookie)
    }
}

Answer 3

You can use

NSURLCache.sharedURLCache().removeAllCachedResponses()
NSURLCache.sharedURLCache().diskCapacity = 0
NSURLCache.sharedURLCache().memoryCapacity = 0

Swift 3.0

URLCache.shared.removeAllCachedResponses()
URLCache.shared.diskCapacity = 0
URLCache.shared.memoryCapacity = 0

You can also change the cache policy of the NSURLRequest

let day_url = NSURL(string: "http://www.domain.com")
let day_url_request = NSURLRequest(URL: day_url,
    cachePolicy: NSURLRequestCachePolicy.ReloadIgnoringLocalAndRemoteCacheData,
    timeoutInterval: 10.0)

let day_webView = UIWebView()
day_webView.loadRequest(day_url_request)

Swift 3.0

let day_url = URL(string: "http://www.domain.com")
let day_url_request = URLRequest(url: day_url!,
    cachePolicy:NSURLRequest.CachePolicy.reloadIgnoringLocalAndRemoteCacheData,
    timeoutInterval: 10.0)

let day_webView = UIWebView()
day_webView.loadRequest(day_url_request)

For more information on cache policies : https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/documentation/Cocoa/Reference/Foundation/Classes/NSURLRequest_Class/index.html#//apple_ref/c/tdef/NSURLRequestCachePolicy

Answer 4

It really works

func clean() {
    HTTPCookieStorage.shared.removeCookies(since: Date.distantPast)
    WKWebsiteDataStore.default().fetchDataRecords(ofTypes: WKWebsiteDataStore.allWebsiteDataTypes()) { records in
        records.forEach { record in
            WKWebsiteDataStore.default().removeData(ofTypes: record.dataTypes, for: [record], completionHandler: {})
        }
    }
}

Answer 5

Swift 4:

final class WebCacheCleaner {

    class func clear() {
        URLCache.shared.removeAllCachedResponses()

        HTTPCookieStorage.shared.removeCookies(since: Date.distantPast)
        print("[WebCacheCleaner] All cookies deleted")

        WKWebsiteDataStore.default().fetchDataRecords(ofTypes: WKWebsiteDataStore.allWebsiteDataTypes()) { records in
            records.forEach { record in
                WKWebsiteDataStore.default().removeData(ofTypes: record.dataTypes, for: [record], completionHandler: {})
                print("[WebCacheCleaner] Record \(record) deleted")
            }
        }
    }

}

// Usage
WebCacheCleaner.clear()

---

Older Versions:

NSURLCache.sharedURLCache().removeAllCachedResponses()
if let cookies = NSHTTPCookieStorage.sharedHTTPCookieStorage().cookies {
    for cookie in cookies {
        NSHTTPCookieStorage.sharedHTTPCookieStorage().deleteCookie(cookie)
    }
}