Clearing your browser's cache

Modified on Thu, Mar 30, 2023 at 11:14 AM

TABLE OF CONTENTS


What is browser cache? 

Your browser's cache is a temporary storage folder on your computer where recently visited web pages are stored. As you navigate to different web pages, your browser will try to load these cached pages to save time and allow web pages to load faster rather than downloading them again. 


Occasionally, some of this saved information can become outdated and cause web pages to not display properly, or at all, or for certain elements on the page to not work. Clearing the cache replaces the outdated information by reloading pages directly from the web server, thus providing you a fresh copy of the web page and improves overall performance.


As a best practice, restart your computer after clearing your cache.



How to clear browser cache

Internet Explorer (Windows)

  1. Open Internet Explorer.
  2. At the top of the window, click Tools > Internet Options.
  3. Under Browsing History, click Delete.
  4. A Delete Browsing History window will appear. You can check the Temporary Internet Files and website files, Cookies and website data and History choices, then click the Delete button.
  5. When this is finished, you can click OK to exit to the main window.
  6. Quit and restart your browser for the changes to take effect.


Edge

  1. Open Edge.
  2. Click the Settings icon.
  3. Click Settings from the menu that opens.
  4. Click on the Choose what to clear button under the Clear browsing data heading.
  5. If they aren't already chosen, click on the boxes before Choose Browsing History, Cookies and saved website data, Cached data and files and Tabs I've set aside or recently closed.
  6. Press the Clear button.
  7. Quit and restart your browser for the changes to take effect.


Firefox (Windows)

  1. Open Firefox.
  2. Go to Tools > Options.
  3. Choose Privacy & Security from the menu on the left.
  4. Under Cached Web Content, click the Clear Now button.
  5. Close the Options tab.
  6. Quit and restart your browser for the changes to take effect.


Firefox (Mac)


  1. Under the Firefox menu, click Preferences.
  2. Click on Privacy & Security, then scroll to Cookies and Site Data.
  3. Click on the Clear Data button.
  4. Make sure the the Cookes and Site Data and Cached Web Content fields are checked, and click the Clear button.
  5. In the window that pops up, click the Clear Now button.
  6. Quit and restart your browser for the changes to take effect.


Safari

  1. Go to the Develop menu and click on Empty Caches.
  2. Quit and restart your browser for the changes to take effect.


Note: If you don't see Develop in the menu bar, do the following:

  • Go to the Safari menu, and click Preferences
  • In Preferences, find and click on the Advanced tab.
  • At the bottom of the window in the Advanced tab, make sure the box labeled Show Develop menu in menu bar is checked


Chrome (Windows and Mac)


1.Click the More icon on the toolbar:

2. Choose Settings.

3. Choose the Privacy and Security option on the left-hand side menu.

4. Click on Clear browsing data.

5. In the box that opens, you can check the items that you want to clear, and you can also choose how far back you want to clear the cache. The most common items to clear are:

  • Highly Recommended, choose Time Range: All Time 

  • Browsing history

  • Download history

  • Cookies and other site and plug in data

  • Cached images and files

6. Click on the Clear data button.

7. Quit and restart your browser for the changes to take effect.

Was this article helpful?

That’s Great!

Thank you for your feedback

Sorry! We couldn't be helpful

Thank you for your feedback

Let us know how can we improve this article!

Select at least one of the reasons
CAPTCHA verification is required.

Feedback sent

We appreciate your effort and will try to fix the article