A browser cache is a temporary storage area in memory or on disk that holds your most recently downloaded web pages. When browsing the web, as you jump from page to page, caching those pages allows you to quickly go back to a page without having to re-download it. In this help guide, we will show you how to clear your browser caching.
Most of the time web caching is effective and improves your online experience as the loading of web pages is faster. A downside of this can be that the website provides a "stale" copy of a webpage when an updated version is needed.
Below are the steps on how to clear your browser cache in some of the more common browsers:
Google Chrome
- Click on the Chrome menu icon seated towards the right end, besides the address bar.
- Navigate to Tools -> Clear browsing data.
- A pop-up will appear on your screen. Here, you can select, not just cache, but any browsing data that you wish to delete.
- Since we are concerned with browse cache, tick marks the option reading Empty the cache and uncheck all others. In order to clear the cache completely, we suggest that you select the beginning of time from the drop-down. Click on Clear browsing data when done.
Firefox
- From the History menu, select Clear Recent History.
- From the Time range to clear: drop-down menu, select the desired range; to clear your entire cache, select Everything.
- Next to "Details", click the down arrow to choose which elements of the history to clear; to clear your entire cache, select all items.
- Click Clear Now.
- Exit/quit all browser windows and re-open the browser.
Safari
- In the Safari menu bar, click the Safari option.
- Click the Clear History link.
- In the Clear drop-down menu, select the time range where you want to clear browsing data.
- Click the Clear History button.
Microsoft Edge
- Open Microsoft Edge
- In the upper right corner, click the small ... (just below the x) and choose Settings.
- Scroll down until you see Clear Browsing Data.
- Click the Box below this stating Choose what to clear
- Select Cached data and files
- Click the Clear History button.
Opera
- Open Opera Browser
- In the upper left corner, click the Large Red O (just to the left of the Tabs)
- Select Settings from the drop-down
- Click Advanced and select Browser
- Scroll down on the right until you see Clear browsing data (click this)
- Select Cached Images and Files
- Click Clear Data
What about Internet Explorer?!
Internet Explorer is no longer supported by Rocketspark as it has been discontinued since 2013. Internet Explorer is likely to have problems displaying many sites - we recommend upgrading to a newer browser.