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Last updateSun, 09 Apr 2017 3pm

Back You are here: Home DIY Maintenance Clear Browser Cache

Clear Browser Cache

As you visit web sites, browsers save copies of the visited websites on your computer in a temporary location in your computer called cache. This helps your computer load web pages more quickly on subsequent visits.

While this is a great time-saving feature, it can occasionally cause conflicts on some pages if the cached copy is out of date or corrupted.

You may find the site’s webpage taking a long time to show up. You may experience some websites not showing up at all. This may be the cause of your Internet speed or your browser cache.

What is a cache in computer sense?

A cache is a repository for stored data that is used to expedite the process of retrieving data. Common cache are webpage caches, hardware caches, software caches and memory caches. Caches are used to speed up a process so that data does not have to be recomputed or fetched from its original location. This feature will improve performance significantly. A cache hit is when a program checks the cache for previously stored information and finds it to be used again. A cache miss is when the data is not found within the cache thus will look to a larger, slower memory source.

Internet browsers use caching to store HTML web pages by storing copies of visited pages and then using the copies to render when you re-visit the web pages. If the date on the page is the same date as the previously stored copy, then the computer uses the one on your hard drive rather than re-downloading it from the internet.

Do we need to empty the browser cache?

Many times web developers make updates to files that comprise the site to push the changes or add new features. If files are changed that your browser has cached, it may keep serving the old cached version of the file which you may not see the most recent changes. This situation would show browser errors like Run Time error, buttons missing on the page, or get messages stating the webpage cannot found. Clearing the Cache and Cookies in a browser generally fixes these issues.

Some browsers have settings to:

  1. Check for new versions of stored pages every time you visit the webpage.
  2. Check for new versions of stored pages every time you start your browser.
  3. Automatically check for new versions of stored pages (commonly set).
  4. Never check for newer versions of stored pages (general never select this one).
  5. Delete browsing history when you exit your browser.
  6. Manage cache storage size on your computer. Some are automatic setting and some are fixed such as 250MB to 250MB.

No matter what settings you may find and set, you still may occasionally need to empty the cache.

How to empty the cache?

Outlined below are the current steps necessary to clear the cache for popular desktop browsers. These steps may change as browser developers modify and improve their browser software.

Chrome

  1. In the browser bar, enter: -- 'chrome://settings/clearBrowserData'
  2. Select the following:
  • Browsing history
  • Download history
  • Cookies and other site and plug-in data
  • Cached images and files

From the drop-down menu selection, you can choose the period of time for which you want to clear cached information. To clear your entire cache, select the beginning of time.

 

  1. Click 'Clear' browsing data.
  2. Restart Chrome. Make sure all instance of Chrome are closed before restarting Chrome.

Firefox

  1. From the 'History' menu, select 'Clear Recent History'. If the menu bar is hidden, press 'Alt' key on the keyboard to make the menu visible.
  2. From the 'Time' range to clear drop-down menu, select the 'Everything' to clear the entire cache.
  3. In the 'Details' area, click the 'down arrow' to choose which elements of the history to clear. Select each to clear your entire cache.
  4. Click 'Clear Now' button.
  5. Restart Firefox. Make sure all instances of Firefox are closed before restarting Firefox.

Microsoft Edge (for Windows 10)

  1. In the top right, click the Hub icon (looks like three horizontal lines).
  2. Click the History icon, then select Clear all history.
  3. Select Browsing history, then Cookies and saved website data, and then Cached data and files. Click Clear.
  4. After the "All Clear!" message appears, restart the Edge.

Microsoft Internet Explorer 9 and higher

Note: As of January 12, 2016, Microsoft ended support for Internet Explorer versions prior to version 11.

  1. Click 'Tools' (via the 'Gear' icon at the upper right corner of internet Explorer) then select Safety for another popup menu.
  2. Select the 'Delete browsing history....' If the menu bar is hidden, press 'Alt' key on the keyboard to make it visible.
  3. Deselect 'Preserve Favorites' website data, and select:
  • Temporary Internet files or Temporary Internet files and website files
  • Cookies or Cookies and website data
  • History
  1. Click 'Delete' button. You will see a confirmation at the bottom of the window when the process is complete.
  2. Restart Internet Explorer. Make sure all instances of Internet Explorer are closed before restarting Internet Explorer.

Opera

  1. From the Opera menu, select 'Settings', and then 'Delete Private Data....'
  2. In the dialog box that opens, select the items you want to clear, and then click Delete.
  3. Restart Opera. Make sure all instances of Opera are closed before restarting Opera.

Safari 8

  1. From the Safari menu, select 'Clear History and Website Data....'
  2. Select the desired time range, and then click 'Clear History'.
  3. Go to Safari menu then click 'Quit Safari' or press 'Command-Q' to exit the browser completely.

Safari 7 and older

  1. From the Safari menu, select 'Reset Safari....'
  2. Select the items you want to reset, and then click 'Reset'. As of Safari 5.1, Remove all website data includes both cookies and cache.
  3. Go to Safari menu then click 'Quit Safari' or press 'Command-Q' to exit the browser completely.