Search

How to Clear a Browser's Cache, Cookies, and History

When visiting a website, a copy is stored in your browser's cache to help load future visits faster. Sometimes, changes made to a website won't display because of the cache that is stored.

It's can be useful to clear your cache, cookies, and history when your browser isn't performing as expected.

Before You Begin

Clearing your web browser's cache, cookies, and history may remove data such as the following:

  • Saved passwords

  • Address bar predictions

  • Shopping cart contents, etc.

Note: You may wish to record some of your saved information first. If you are unable to do so, see Troubleshooting Alternatives below.

Troubleshooting Alternatives

If you need to clear your cache, cookies, and history for troubleshooting purposes, but aren't yet prepared to lose the content listed above, you may wish to consider using a private browsing window in your preferred browser as a temporary solution:

Quick tip before getting started: For desktop browsers, quickly open the menu used to clear your cache, cookies, and history, by pressing Ctrl-Shift-Delete (Windows)  or Command-Shift-Delete (Mac) 

Chrome

  1. In the browser's URL bar, enter: chrome://settings/clearBrowserData 

  2. At the top of the "Clear browsing data" window, click Advanced 

  3. Select from the following:
    Browsing history  
    Cookies and other site data
    Cached images and files 

  4. From the "Time range" drop-down menu, choose the period of time for which you want to clear cached information. To clear your entire cache, select All time 

  5. Click CLEAR DATA and either close the browser and reopen, or refresh the page in each of your open browser tabs

Firefox

  1. From the History  menu, select Clear Recent History 

  2. From the Time range to clear: drop-down menu, select the desired range. To clear your entire cache, select Everything 

  3. Next to "Details", click the down arrow to choose which elements of the history to clear. To clear your entire cache, select all items

  4. Click Clear Now 

  5. Close all open browser windows and reopen

Microsoft Edge

  1. Select Settings and more ...   > Settings   > Privacy and services 

  2. Under Clear browsing data , select Choose what to clear 

  3. Choose a time range from the Time range  drop-down menu

  4. Select Clear now 

Note: The above instructions are for the newer version of Microsoft edge. Get help for the legacy version of Microsoft Edge.

Safari 8 and later

  1. From the Safari menu, select Clear History...  or Clear History and Website Data... 

  2. Select the desired time range, and then click Clear History 

  3. Go to Safari > Quit Safari  or press Command-Q  to exit the browser completely

Tips

  • If the instructions don't exactly match what you see, you may need to update your web browser to the latest version.

  • If you don't see instructions for your specific version or browser, search your browser's Help menu for "clear cache". If you're unsure what browser version you're using, from the Help menu or your browser's menu, select About [browser name]. 

 

 

Updated

Was this article helpful?