How to Check Incognito History and Delete it in Google Chrome?

Incognito mode is the mode where you can browse privately, and other people who use the same device won’t see your activity. This mode doesn’t leave any traces of browsing so it is useful for private browsing for different reasons. But you may want to go back to the site previously opened in incognito mode, but you can’t go as incognito history is not saved at all unless searching it again on Google.

Incognito/Private Mode

How is Browsing History Saved in Incognito?

Many of us might think that the browsing history in incognito mode is not retrieved at all, but this is not true. There is a way in Windows Operating System by which we can see our incognito history and delete it. Many third-party applications are available on the internet for checking it, but we aren’t using any of these applications, we are going to see from DNS Cache using the Windows command prompt.

How DNS Works?

DNS stands for Domain Name System. It converts the Uniform Resource Locator (URL) of any website into its equivalent IP address. 

All of us visit our favorite websites by typing the web addresses like geeksforgeeks.org or youtube.com, but your browser doesn’t understand this, the browser needs to know the IP address of the site you’re trying to visit. So when we type the web address in the search bar, the browser sends a request to the domain name system. As DNS gets a query from the browser, it matches the site URL to an IP address and returns the IP address to the browser. 

For more, you can refer to Working of DNS Server.

DNS Cache

DNS Cache (Sometimes referred to as DNS resolver cache) is the memory of recent DNS queries stored locally on your computer. It contains all the records of recent website visits so that when next time you will visit the same website, you can get a quick response from the DNS server. In short DNS cache speed up the process of matching IP addresses by handling the names of recently visited addresses before the request is sent out to the internet.

As the DNS cache is stored locally on our computer, we can easily view and clear it very easily using the command prompt. To do so follow the below-mentioned steps properly.

How to View Incognito History on Windows

Below are the steps mentioned to see the incognito history, Follow them properly.

Step 1: Open a command prompt (administrator), by searching it in the search box.

Command Prompt

Step 2: Type the command ipconfig /displaydns to see a DNS cache history.

Display DNS

Step 3: Now you can see the detailed information about websites that are recently visited and didn’t show up in history.

Detailed DNS

How to Delete Incognito History on Windows

To delete that history, you have to perform the following steps:

Step 1: Open the Command prompt as mentioned above

Step 2: Type the command ipconfig /flushdns to clear the DNS.

FlushDNS

Step 3: This will flush the DNS entries and now nobody can view websites that you’ve visited.

FlushDNS

How to View Incognito History on Android

A person can’t see DNS Cache on Android Devices, but we can use third-party apps to view Incognito History on Android Devices. Examples of such apps are Hoverwatch, KidsGuard, etc.

We have permission to view the incognito history with the help of these apps, but we don’t have permission to delete the history. The problem with these apps is that they can track much more information than the requirement, and that’s why it is sometimes risky to use.

How to Delete Incognito History on Android

Below are the mentioned steps to delete Incognito History on Android Devices. Following these simple methods lead you to delete the history and clear the DNS Cache using the Chrome Browser.

Step 1: Launch Google Chrome on your Device.

Step 2: Type “chrome://net-internals/#dns” in the address bar and press Enter.

Android (Delete)

Step 3: Press ‘Clear Host Cache’ to delete the Device’s DNS Cache.

Android (Delete)

Step 4: Exit from Chrome.

How to View Incognito History on macOS

Below are the mentioned steps to view the Incognito History on macOS

Step 1: In macOS, choose the ‘Applications’ Folder and Press ‘Utilities’ in the Application Folder.

MAC (View)

Step 2: First, open ‘Console’ by double-clicking it.

MAC (View)

Step 3: On the Device, type “any:mdnsresponder” at the search bar on top of the Window.

MAC (View)

Step 4: Click on the ‘Play’ button in the toolbar section.

MAC (View)

Step 5: Back to ‘Utilities’ and press on the ‘Terminal’.

MAC (View)

Step 6: Enter the command ‘sudo killall -INFO mDNSResponder’ command and press Enter. Here, you require the password for entry.

MAC (View)

How to Delete Incognito History on macOS

Below are the mentioned steps, which will help you in deleting the Incognito History on macOS.

Step 1: Select the ‘Utilities’ section after launching Applications on the Mac Device.

MAC(Delete)

Step 2: Click on the ‘Terminal’ Section to launch it under the Terminal Section.

MAC(Delete)

Step 3: In the terminal, enter the command “sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder”, andpress Enter. Here, you require a password for entering it.

MAC(Delete)

Step 4: The above step will delete the DNS Cache and clear Incognito History.

How to View Incognito History on iPhone

For iPhone, below are mentioned steps you must follow to view incognito history on iPhone

Step 1: The very first step, go to Settings and open Safari there.

iPhone(View)

Step 2: Once, you are inside Safari, just click on Advanced as shown in the image.

iPhone(View)

Step 3: After going inside Advanced, just click on Website Data, you will be able to see Incognito History there. 

iPhone(View)

How to Delete Incognito History on iPhone

For deleting Incognito History on your iPhone, the option you have is to restart your iPhone or you can enable Airplane mode for a second. The above step will flush the DNS Records.

iPhone(Delete)

How to Privately Browse in Incognito Mode

Following are the ways by which you can privately browse the web in the Incognito Mode:

• Use a reliable VPN: A Virtual Private Network(VPN) has to work to protect our online surveillance data by encrypting the traffic and hiding IP Addresses. 
• Using Secure Web Browser: By using a secure web browser, it will help the user in web surfing privately and securely.
• Clearing browser data regularly: By clearing browsing data regularly, will lead you to clean traces of sessions.
• Deleting DNS Cache: By deleting DNS Cache, the user can remove the record of Incognito History.

Protect your Privacy

In today’s world, it is very important for all of us to protect our data from third parties. Incognito mode is one of the ways to browse our data privately and securely, but it does not ensure total security on the web. Users must require some other techniques to protect the data. The techniques which are used to protect the data are mentioned below.

Ways to Browse the Web Anonymously

There are several ways to browse the web anonymously, we are going to see some of them here.

• Use Private Browsers: Even after clearing your mainstream history, it never means that no one is watching your history. Users can avoid these by dedicated private browsers. These browsers not only help in stopping data sharing but also protects location sharing.
• Use VPNs: VPN is one of the best ways to browse the web anonymously. They make it like a private network by encrypting the connection. But the user must be aware of bad VPNs present on the Internet. 
• Stop Tracking Location: Giving access to track locations can be a problem. Common Browsers like Chrome, Firefox, etc. take IP Addresses to send location data to visited websites. We have to restrict accessing the location even when you are using VPN also.
• Stop Browser Cookies: Browser Cookies help us in increasing the Browsing Experience. But, they must be stopped because they generally store IP Addresses, unique IDs, etc.
• Stop Tailored Ads on Social Media: Tailored Ads on Social Media are one of the ways to track your data history, so you must stop tailored Ads on Social Media.