What is Browser Cache?
Browser Cache is local copies of files and images from the sites you visit stored in your browser after the first time you visit a site. These local copies are stored for the reason of making the websites load faster the next time you visit them. The browser will use the cache to load those elements of the website, without needing to download them again.
During the development stages of a website, the cache needs to be regularly cleared, every hour or less. The reason for this is because cache can hide changes that have been made. When a change is made to the website, the old cache may hide the change. The cache can be cleared, and the change will be visible.
Clearing cache can also be helpful with speeding up slower devices, if there is a large amount of cache stored.
How to clear Browser Cache.
Browser cache is simple to clear, and is relatively the same in each browser.
You can do a ‘Hard Refresh’ on PC and laptops, which will refresh the page and clear the cache of the page you are viewing.
To Hard Refresh in Chrome, Firefox, and Edge: For Windows users, press CTRL + F5 on your keyboard. Mac users press Command (⌘) + Shift + R on your keyboard.
To clear cache in Chrome:
- Navigate to the top right menu (vertical ellipses)
- Go to ‘History’ and a side menu will open. Go to ‘History’ again. (Shortcut: Ctrl+H)
- Click ‘Clear browsing data’
- Choose ‘Cached images and files’
- Then click Clear Data.
To clear cache in Firefox:
- Click the menu button
- Click ‘Settings’
- Click ‘Privacy & Security’
- Scroll down to ‘Cookies and Site Data’ and click Clear Data
- Select Cached Web Content
- Click Clear
To clear cache in Edge:
- Click the menu button
- Click ‘History’
- Click the more options button in History
- Click ‘Clear browsing data’
- Select ‘Cached images and files’
- Click Clear now.
