THE IMPORTANCE OF CLEARING YOUR BROWSER CACHE

As technology continues to evolve, so too does our reliance on our computers and mobile devices. But how often do you clean them? I don’t mean dusting or cleaning off fingerprints; I’m talking about making sure your device is quick and efficient.

When using your favorite web browser, files and webpages that you access are often stored (cached), to make pages load quicker when accessed again in the future. This is a standard feature in all web browsers. Sometimes changes to a website won’t be seen automatically, since the web browser is accessing a previously cached version of the website, and not the most up-to-date version, also sometimes errors can occur because you are viewing an "out of date" version of the file. Additionally, after enough time this can end up eating your disk space.

Clearing out a web browser’s cache does not damage any information stored in a browser, such as bookmarks or your homepage. Instead, it simply makes the web browser think that you have not visited a webpage before. The next time you access a webpage after clearing your cache, the web browser will load and display the most recent version of the website, since it won’t have any previous versions stored.  Think of it as a little spring-cleaning for your favorite browser on your desktop or mobile device.  

But how do you clear your cache? Good question. Listed below are the steps to perform this for your favorite desktop or mobile browser.

Internet Explorer & Google Chrome & Firefox

To clear the web browser’s cache when using the above browsers:

1. Open your browser
2. Then press CRTL – SHIFT - DELETE
3. Follow the on-screen instructions for deleting browsing history and or cache

Safari for Windows

To clear the web browser’s cache when using Safari for Windows.

1. Click History on the browser window
2. Then click clear history
3. Then click the clear button to complete

Mobile Safari

To clear the web browser’s cache when using Safari on an iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch:

1. At the home screen, tap Settings.
2. Tap Safari.
3. Tap the button for Clear History & Data
4. Tap Clear History & Data again to confirm.

Chrome for Android

To clear the web browser’s cache when using the default browser on an Android device:

1. Touch Chrome browser menu (The triple dots at top right of screen)> Settings.
2. Touch Settings
3. Touch Privacy
4. Scroll to bottom of screen and touch Clear Browsing history

Once you clear your web browser’s cache, it is a good idea to complete close out and restart your browser for this to take effect.