How to Empty Cache on Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge, Internet Explorer

Regular readers of How2do.org know very well how to clear the cache of their web browser, but they don’t often do it because they know that the cache is useful for loading websites faster. Less experienced people, on the other hand, may know nothing about what “cache” means, let alone know how to delete temporary files stored after an internet browsing session, or they know it by doing it too often.The cache, when referred to web browsers, is a temporary memory of the computer where the files of the open websites are saved which, to show things like logos and images, download some data into the memory of the computer. The aim is to speed up the loading time of the same site when you visit it again. Graphic elements of the sites, such as the logo on the top left, can therefore be loaded from the cache saved on the computer disk and not downloaded from the internet (from the web server) again.
Among the temporary browser files are stored also cookies, small files that can be injected into your computer when you visit a website. We have explained what internet cookies are and explained who creates cookies and how they can be blocked or deleted in other dedicated articles.

Each browser saves the cache in a different location on the computer disk, usually a fairly hidden internal folder. Emptying the cache meansthen delete the contents of this folder and delete all the files. We use to clean the cache of the web browser, therefore, to remove traces of the sites visited and even when you want recover disk space if it is very limited, however recover memory on your smartphone. Clearing the cache is one of those operations that allows you to solve any problems in viewing a website, in order to re-download the data from scratch without using the data saved in the cache that may be wrong or old.
Summarizing the meaning of cache, cookies and history we see that:
– Clear your browser cache it is used to delete stored files of the sites visited and often allows to resolve any loading errors.
– Delete the cookies instead it allows to remove from the computer the traces of internet use, the saved logins and passwords and the data of each session.
– Clear history instead it is a matter of privacy, to prevent others from seeing which sites have been visited by that computer.
We have already seen when and why clear history on Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge and IE, which can be useful for privacy issues.

To clear the cache of web browsers on PC and Smartphone instead we see the procedure for Chrome, Firefox, Opera, Edge, Internet Explorer and Safari.

Clean the web cache on PC

Clean up Cache on Google Chrome

To clear the cache in Chrome click on the button at the top right then go to Other tools, then on “Clear browsing data“or press the keys together Ctrl-Shift-Delete. The same screen can be obtained by opening the history and then pressing the link on the left side Clear browsing data.
In the window that appears, you can choose between basic view and advanced view; in any case you have to make sure that the item “Cached images and files“is selected before pressing the button Clear browsing data. You can also choose the time interval from the drop-down menu at the top of the window.
Similarly to other browsers, if you are logged in with Google account in Chrome, for example on PC and smartphone, you can also clean the history from multiple devices.
The Windows folder where temporary Chrome cache files are saved is:
C: Users username AppData Local Google Chrome User Data Default Cache
You can also see a list of files saved from Chrome’s cache via the free program Chrome Cache View.

READ ALSO: Delete data and site history when closing Chrome and Firefox

Empty Cache in Mozilla Firefox

Click on the button at the top right, where there are three horizontal lines, press to display the menu and go to Options> Privacy. In the list of options on the right, scroll down until you find the Cookies and website data. Here press on Delete data to see the size of files occupied by cache and website data. Selecting Cookies and site data, all cookie permissions will be removed (those that sites are obliged to ask when an OK button appears when asked about cookies).
By selecting instead cached web content it will go to clear the cache of Firefox and delete the temporary Internet files that help the faster loading of the pages.
The Windows folder where the Firefox file cache is located is: C: Users username-that-changes-for-every-pc AppData Local Mozilla Firefox Profiles Code-that-changes (to be modified according to the computer).
Under the History section of the Privacy options of Firefox you can press the Clear history button and then put the cross only on cache (or even other elements of the history) and press on Cancel now. In this section you can also select the time interval to clear the cache saved only at the last hour or the last day.
To open the Firefox Cache you can also use the Firefox Cache View program.

Microsoft Edge cache

The Microsoft Edge browser makes it very easy to find the key to clear the cache: press on the three horizontal points in the upper right of the browser, then go to Settings and click the section Privacy and security in the left panel. You can then click the button Choose what to delete .
From the list, you can select different elements of the browser history, among which there is the one called Cached data and files, which represents the cache to select and empty.
In addition, you can also turn on the option that allows you to automatically delete data every time you close Microsoft Edge.

Empty Cache in Opera

The procedure for clearing the cache on Opera is the same as for Chrome, press on the Opera menu and go to Settings > Advanced settings (left side) and select from there Confidentiality and security . Under that menu, you can hit the link Clear your browsing data . By selecting Cached images and files you can clear the Opera cache on PC.

Clear Cache in Safari

In Safari on Mac, the button that clears the cache and temporary files must be enabled in the Mac Preferences, below Safari> Preferences> Advanced, where the option must be activated Show development menu . By opening Safari, the Development menu will now appear with the options to empty the cache and to disable the cache (i.e. to make sure that the sites do not save files on the computer).

Clear Internet Explorer Cache

To delete Cache and cookies, press the Settings button in the upper right and then go to Internet options> General> Delete under exploration history or press Ctrl-Shift-Delete together. Alternatively, open the Start menu, click Control panel> Internet options> Delete
Always make sure the item Temporary Internet files is selected and, optionally, also delete cookies if you want to eliminate traces of navigation with Internet Explorer. To see cookies, you can go to Internet options and press settings under the voice exploration history. By pressing on View files the temporary files folder opens and the cookies are the files txt whose names are like cookie:
The folder of Windows 10, Windows 7 and 8.1 where cookies are saved is in:
C: Users username AppData Roaming Microsoft Windows Cookies
The IECacheView program makes it easy to navigate Internet Explorer cache files.

In another article there are i programs to view the browser cache (images and videos) also all together.
On Windows PC you can clear the cache and you can also delete cookies and temporary files and history also using automatic programs such as Ccleaner.

Clear the web cache on smartphones and tablets

Clear cache on Android

When using an Android device, smartphone or tablet Samsung, Huawei, Xiaomi or others, you can empty the browser cache by opening it and going to its menu where there is always an option for Settings. If you use Chrome, just go to Privacy to find the key that clears the cache.
To delete Android internet cache files in a complete way, I refer to the guide to delete Cache and App Data on Android that applies to Chrome, Firefox and any other browser used on the phone.

Empty Cache on iPhone

In Apple devices such as iPhone, iPad, you can empty the internet cache by going to iPhone Settings and then to the section dedicated to Safari. By scrolling down in Safari settings, you can find the button Clear website history and data.