How to clear your browsers cache

When making changes to web pages that get regular use, a common complaint webmasters hear from clients and visitors is "I am still seeing the old version of the page".

The problem: The culprit is most often "caching". The issue of caching has a good side and a bad side. The good side is that repeat visits to a page usually load and render faster. The bad side is that returning visitors occasionally do not get a fresh copy of the page with the latest updates.

The solution: clear your browser cache

So, what is a browser cache? Web browsers such as Internet Explorer, Safari and Opera save a copy of web pages and their graphics on your computer as you visit them for the first time. This allows repeat visits to those "already visited" pages to be loaded faster. Your computer can do this because the browser doesn't have to yell across the thousands of miles of wire carrying the Internet to talk to the web server responsible for giving up your web page. Instead, it grabs the saved copy ("cache") from your computer hard drive ...a much faster trip. Think of it as the difference between grabbing a snack from the fridge rather than driving across town to get a meal.

When a good idea goes bad. So far caching sounds like a great optimization. However, it becomes a nuissance when you are making frequent visits to a page which is also being changed frequently. Browser caching is governed by the visitor's browser.

Where does this leave us? While there are some techniques to short circuit caching, they come with a price. Looking more closely at most caching problems, you'll discover that they represent the exception rather than the rule. On that basis, it's often best to simply have the specific user experiencing the problem clear their browser cache to force a browser reload during the next request.

Okay, so how do I clear my browser cache? Browsers come in many flavors, and each imposes it's own contorted pathway to clearing the local cache. Here's a list of common browsers and the steps required to clear their cache.

• Mozilla Firefox
  1. Select "Tools" and then "Options" from the menu bar
  2. Click the "Privacy" button
  3. Click "Clear" next to the section labelled "Cache"

• Internet Explorer 6.x
  1. Select "Tools" and then "Internet Options" from the menu bar
  2. Click the "General" tab (it's already open by default)
  3. Click "Delete Files"
• Internet Explorer 5.x
  1. Select "Tools" and then "Internet Options" from the menu bar
  2. Click the "General" tab
  3. Click "Delete Files"
• Internet Explorer 4.x
  1. Select "View" and then "Internet Options" from the menu bar
  2. Click the "General" tab
  3. Click "Delete Files"
• Internet Explorer 3.x
  1. Select "View" and then "Options" from the menu bar
  2. Click the "Advanced" tab
  3. Click "Settings"
  4. Click "Empty Folder"

• Navigator 3.x
  1. Select "Options" and then "Network Preferences" from the menu bar
  2. Click the "Cache" tab
  3. Click "Clear Memory Cache Now" to clear the memory cache
  4. Click "Clear Disk Cache Now" to clear the disk cache
• Communicator 4.x
  1. Select "Edit" and then "Preferences" from the menu bar
  2. Click into "Advanced - Cache"
  3. Click "Clear Memory Cache" to clear the memory cache
  4. Click "Clear Disk Cache" to clear the disk cache

Tips and Tricks

Force browser reload

A quick short-cut offering an alternate to completely clearing your browser cache is to simply -force- the browser to reload. It doesn't always work, but to give it a shot, hold down the CTRL and SHIFT keys while pressing the REFRESH (or RELOAD) button. On Mac: use the OPTION key in place of the CTRL key.

Change default settings

The default setting for Internet Explorer makes the browser excrutiatingly lazy. The first thing many developers do with IE is to change the default caching option to check for newer versions of web pages more frequently. Here's how to do it with IE6.

1. Select Tools -> Internet Options from the menu bar.
2. Click "Settings" from the "Temporary Internet Files" section.
3. Change the selected radio from "Automatically" to "Every visit to the page".
4. Click "Ok".

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Links to related information:
Internet Explorer: How and Why to Clear Your Cache
Browser Problems?

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