How to Clear Your Web Browser’s Cache

While many if not most cookies are benign, some may be used to track you for ad purposes and invade your privacy. Left untended, the cache itself can build up and claim storage space and memory you could otherwise use. You also may experience glitches or a page that fails to load, especially if a new version of the page bumps heads against a cache stashed with older stuff.

Clearing your cache and cookies generally causes little harm. But the first time you return to some places online, you may have to log in again or wait for certain content to load.

Here is how to clean things up on the four most popular web browsers: Apple Safari, Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge and Mozilla Firefox. Three of the four have versions for both Windows PCs and Macs with subtle differences between them, as well as versions for both iPhones and Android smartphones.

Safari 5, Apple’s last version of Safari that worked on Windows, debuted in 2010. Apple subsequently discontinued Safari versions for Windows. Apple did not create any officially sanctioned version of Safari for Android devices.

Apple Safari has two ways to clear its cache

You have a couple of ways to clean things up on Safari.

For the first method, launch Safari on a Mac. Under the Safari pull-down menu, click on Settings... and click on the ✋ Privacy tab at the top of the window. Click the Manage Website Data... button and scroll down the list to find the website or sites that have stored data that can be used to track you. Tap the Remove button to remove the data at the given site or tap the Remove All button to get rid of the tracking data at all the sites. Tap Done when you are done.

Under this ✋ Privacy tab, you can also click the Advanced Settings button and then check a box to Block all cookies. But as Apple warns, making this selection may mean some websites may not work, and others may log you out.

Start the second method by clicking on Settings... . This time, click the Advanced tab on the upper right and select the ☑ Show features for web developers box so a checkmark appears. Then to avoid confusion, close the Settings... box by clicking the ⨂ X in a red circle in the upper left corner of the Settings... box.

Now look up to the top left of your screen where you’ll see a new pulldown menu called Develop to click on. Then choose Empty Caches. Everything will be cleared without additional options.

On an iPhone, tap Settings | Apps and scroll down to Safari. Tap Safari and then tap Clear History and Website Data, which will remove your history, cookies and other browsing data. It’s worth noting that your browsing history will be cleared from all devices signed in to your iCloud account, including computers and any other phones or tablets.

Google Chrome has basic, advanced options

On a computer, open Chrome and click on the three vertical dots ⋮ in the upper right corner of the browser window. Choose Delete Browsing Data… from the menu that appears. Check the boxes to clear your entire Browsing history, Cookies and other site data or Cached images and files if the Basic tab is highlighted.

If Advanced is highlighted, you will see other options you could check, not that you necessarily want to in every instance. These additional options, which you might have to scroll down to see, include Autofill Form Data, Site Settings and Hosted App Data. Chrome also allows you to clear your cache entirely or back to specified time periods.

Click Delete data when you are satisfied with your selections.

If you want to clear browsing data only from the device you are working on while keeping it elsewhere on your Google account, make sure to sign out of your account first.

On phones, in the Chrome app on iOS, tap the three horizontal dots ⋯. On Android, tap the three vertical dots ⋮ instead.

In both cases, tap History and then tap Delete Browsing Data... . You will then be able to clear data for your Browsing history; Cookies, site data; Cached images and files; Saved passwords and Autofill data. You will also be able to choose a time range for the data you want to clear: last hour, last 24 hours, last 7 days, last 4 weeks or all time.

Tap Delete browsing data on iOS or Delete data on Android to complete your cleanup mission.

Microsoft Edge allows automatic cache clearing

On a Windows PC or Mac, launch the Edge browser, click the three horizontal dots ⋯ at the upper right corner of the screen | ⚙️ Settings. From the menu on the left rail, click Privacy, Search, and Services. 

Under Delete browsing data, select either Clear browsing data now or Choose what to clear every time you close the browser.  Click the Choose What To Clear, button, and from the Clear browsing data menu select all or some of the options that appear: 

• Browsing history
• Download history
• Cookies and other site data
• Cached images and files
• Passwords and Autofill form data (includes forms and cards)
• Site permissions

Click the Clear Now button when done.

On iPhones, launch the Edge app and then tap the three horizontal lines ☰ at the bottom of the screen. Tap ⚙️ Settings | Privacy and security | Clear browsing data and decide on the options, which are similar to the choices presented on a PC or Mac.

On Androids, tap the three horizontal lines ☰, then on a Google Pixel ⚙️ Settings | Privacy, security and services or on a Samsung Galaxy Privacy and security,  then Delete browsing data.

Mozilla Firefox lets you customize or go automatic

After opening Firefox on a PC or Mac, click the hamburger symbol ☰ — it resembles three stacked lines — and then click Settings on the menu that appears, then Privacy & Security on the left. Scroll down to Cookies and Site Data and click Clear Data. On the window that pops up, you can remove all the Cookies and Site Data by keeping that box checked and/or Temporary Cached Files and Pages by keeping that box checked. Tap Clear if satisfied with these choices.

Other available options under Cookies and Site Data include a Manage Exceptions button to specify which websites are always or never allowed to use cookies and site data, and a check box that lets you delete cookies and site data when Firefox is closed.

On an iPhone, launch the Firefox app, and tap the hamburger menu ☰ at the lower right corner. Tap Settings ⚙️ , scroll down to the Privacy section and tap Data Management. You will see a list of the types of information you can remove: Browsing History, Cache, Cookies, Offline Website Data, Tracking Protection and Downloaded Files. Tap the toggle next to each option to enable or disable that selection. When satisfied with your choices, tap Clear Private Data.

On Android, launch the app and tap the three vertical dots ⋮ in the upper right corner. Tap ⚙️ Settings, scroll down to the Privacy and security section, and tap Delete browsing data. Choose the data types you’d like to delete among Open tabs, Browsing history, Cookies and site data, Cached images and files, Site permissions and Downloads. Tap the Delete browsing data button to complete the exorcism.

Firefox includes a separate menu item for automatically deleting browsing data whenever you quit the app. Its default is off but you can switch it on in the same Privacy or Privacy and security section within either flavor of smartphone.