It’s a common joke and film troupe, anyone viewing your internet history is a bad thing. A few friends of ours always joke, “when I die, it’s your job to erase my internet history”. It’s a great way to solve some basic internet issues like a 304 errors, 404 errors or 502 errors. Normally, before we use the tried and tested ‘turn it off and on again’. We ask users to clear internet history, cache and data.
What is browser cache?
Every time you visit a website, your device downloads parts of a website, so you can view its contents. These could be:
- Images,
- HTML,
- CSS,
- JavaScript,
- Fonts,
- Databases,
- Preferences / settings.
- Products left in our shopping cart
- Auto login functionally
- The list could go on
They store all of this data in a database on our device to speed up the user experience. Having a few files on our device from our last visit will improve load times next time we visit.
Our browser checks our cache at the same time as asking a website it would like to view it. When the website responds to “you need these 9 files” our browser can quickly say “I have 4 of them, please send the other 5”. This is a very non-technical way of looking at the process, but you get the basics.
Why clear browser cache?
Over time, our cache gets a bit too big and possibly a little out of date. Look at your spice rack, when was the last time you checked the best before or had the smoked paprika label worn so much it’s now labelled paprika. Not a vast difference, but you might notice a small taste difference. The same happens with our cache. By clearing, we can force our browser to get all new ingredients.
How to clear browser cache in Google Chrome
Press the Three Dots icon in the top right corner
Press More Tools
Press Clear browsing data…
Select a time range to remove
Make sure Cached images and files is checked
Finally, press Clear data
How to clear browser cache in Mozilla Firefox
Press the Hamburger icon in the top right corner
Press History
Press Clear Recent History…
Select a Time range to clear
Make sure Cached images and files is checked
Finally, press Clear data
How to clear browser cache in Brave
Press the Three-Line icon in the top right corner
Press More Tools
Press Clear browsing data…
Select a time range to remove
Make sure Cached images and files is checked
Finally, press Clear data
How to clear browser cache in Microsoft Edge
Press the Three Dots icon in the top right corner
Press History
From the History menu, press the Three Dots icon in the top right corner
Press Clear browsing data
Select a time range to remove
Make sure Cached images and files is checked
Finally, press Clear now
How to clear browser cache in Opera
Press the history button in the sidebar
Press Clear Browsing Data
Select a time range to remove
Make sure Cached images and files is checked
Finally, press Clear data
How to clear cache in Safari
Click the Safari menu, then Clear History…
In the Clear field choose All History
Click Clear History.