The basic function of a browser is to connect to a website’s server, download internet files, and display them to the user. And, to do so, every browser maintains a temporary internet files directory-
browser cache
. It caches web pages, images, CSS, audio, video, and other downloaded content which renders web pages faster the next time you visit them.
Even before we look at how to clear browser cache on Google Chrome, let me tell you some good and bad things about clearing cache.
- Since the cache is a folder stored inside the computer, such a large collection of files can cause you to run out of disk space and slow down your computer.
- Your browser displays older page content and ignores new content from the site. So you may end up reading outdated content or may not get to what you are looking for.
- The information stored in the browser cache is sometimes incomplete or corrupted.
- Clearing the cache will delete a significant amount of data from the browser memory. If you’ve stored your username/password for a website, chances are high that you’ll lose them too.
- Since the cache contains downloaded content, clearing the same means that web pages will load slower (the first time) when you visit them again.
Information: To learn more about these, read about what are browser caches and cookies and is it helpful to clear them?
Steps to Clear Cache in Google Chrome
The steps shown here will apply to the latest versions of Google Chrome. However, the steps should be roughly the same for whatever version you may be using.
Step 1: Click the Chrome menu icon located at the bottom right, next to the address bar.
Step 2: Navigate to Tools -> Clear browsing data. If you like keyboard shortcuts, you can use Ctrl + Shift + Delete and skip Step 1 and Step 2.
Step 3: A pop-up window (as shown below) will appear on your screen. Here you can choose, not just the cache, but any browsing data you want to clear.
Step 4: Since we are concerned with the browser cache, tick the read option Empty the cache and uncheck all others. To clear the cache completely, we recommend choosing start time from the drop-down menu. Click Clear access data Once completed.
Hot Tip: We’ve already covered Chrome install URLs. So you can also navigate to the clear data page using the URL chrome://chrome/settings/clearBrowserData. OR just use chrome://chrome/history/ then click Clear all browsing data button.
Conclusion
As we discussed, clearing the cache has its own advantages and disadvantages. Although, you probably don’t want to lose cache data (as it really helps), sometimes it’s important to do so. Meanwhile, there is a small suggestion that I will leave. Here it is.
Recommendation: If you’re having issues and think it’s a browser cache issue, you should try your browser’s incognito/private mode first. And, if you’re still seeing the problem, it’s not your cache, but something else.
Categories: How to
Source: thpttranhungdao.edu.vn/en/
