Clearing your Browser Cache, Cookies and History
Browsers want to appear really fast for you. So instead of going back to the webpage every time you visit it, they save copies of pages and bits of information called, “cache”. There are times when this effort at speeding up the browser actually slows you down. Like when you’re trying to make changes to your live site and see the changes in real time.
There are three things that can cause some frustration, cache, cookies and browser history.
You may need to get rid of all these temporary files so you see your changes. The process is similar in all browsers, you just have to know where to find the controls. Check out the list.
Before you do this check to see how to delete your CMS’s cache and do that first
One of the hassles of doing this is that sometimes you want the cookies or the history for browsing. First check you’re CMS and delete the cache there first. If you think you might want to keep your cookies or history, try it first with just deleting the Temporary Internet Files. You can come back and do the rest.
Why do it incrementally? Main reason is time, second reason is your browsing pleasure. It can take considerable amounts of time to delete all cache depending on your computer and software. If you know you’re computer’s slow, start slow. If you delete all your history and cookies, it may make it harder to find some old sites you like to visit, or they may not recognize you when you get there.
Also see this tutorial : Deleting Joomla Cache
Internet Explorer 8 and above: Step 1
- Go to the Tools menu
- Click Delete Browsing History
Internet Explorer 8 and above: Step 2
- Deselect Preserve Favorites website data, ( if you still have trouble, you may have to come back to this and select it)
- Select Temporary Internet files
- Select Cookies,
- Select History.
- Click Delete.
Internet Explorer 7: Step 1
- Go to the Tools menu
- Select Delete Browsing History
Internet Explorer 7: Step 2
Click “Delete” next to each item you want to delete
Firefox 3.5 and above: Step 1
- From the Tools menu
- Select Clear Recent History. Or if you’re a keyboard wizard Ctrl+Shift+Del.
Firefox 3.5 and above: Step 2
- From the Time range to clear: drop-down menu, select the desired range; to clear your entire cache, select Everything.
- Click the down arrow next to “Details” to open the selection window if you can’t see your choices.
- Choose what history elements to clear (e.g., check Cookies to clear cookies).
- Click Clear Now.
Google Chrome: Step 1
- Click the wrench in the upper right
- Select tools
- Select Clear browsing data…
Alternate method to access the clear browser data
In the browser bar, enter: chrome://settings/clearBrowserData
Select the items you want to clear (e.g., Clear browsing history, Clear download history, Empty the cache, Delete cookies and other site and plug-in dat
Google Chrome: Step 2
- Choose the period of time
- Choose the items to delete
- Click Clear browsing data
The steps to clearing the cache and cookies are understandably simple in every browser once you know where to look. If you’re not using one of the most popular browsers, you’ll need to check your documentation, but it should be simple.
