How to Clear Your Cache to View Your Website Changes

You just spent loads of time and (and maybe money) giving your website a much-needed makeover, you saved your changes, and now it’s time to see the results of those efforts. But when you refresh your browser, all you see is the same old site staring back at you.

You have an “oh no” moment, feeling like all your work was wasted.

Once you calm down, you begin to wonder, did I do something wrong? Did I make a mistake? The answer is, no. And the solution is simple.

Your browser cache is likely the cause of your grief. It simply needs to be cleared, and once it is, you’ll see all the spectacular changes to your website. But first …

What is a Cache?

First off, so you don’t sound silly when talking about it with coworkers, this word is pronounced just like the money in your wallet – cash!

A cache is a temporary storage for web pages. The location of this storage is your hard drive. Having a local copy of web pages you visit often results in shorter load times because your computer won’t have to download everything from that page again.

That’s the benefit of caches – faster load times. It’s all about improving performance. Unfortunately, this benefit can cause headaches at inopportune times.

Why Should You Clear Your Cache?

Well, this is an easy one to answer. Clearing your cache will allow you to see your website changes, while also lowering your blood pressure and any stress that’s been building up since refreshing the page a dozen times didn’t do the trick.

Clearing the cache forces the browser to get the latest copy of a particular webpage. It’s something that should happen automatically, but that isn’t always the case, as you know.

Clearing your browser’s cache periodically is a good practice, regardless of the reason. Those cache files can grow quite large and clearing them will free up space on your hard drive.

Below you’ll find our handy instructions for how to clear your cache for four commonly used web browsers.

We’ll save you some scrolling. Jump to your preferred browser:

Google Chrome

Google Chrome (Mobile)

Safari

Safari (Mobile)

Firefox

Firefox (Mobile)

Microsoft Edge

Google Chrome

The simplest way to clear your cache in Chrome is to hit Ctrl+Shift+Del on your keyboard. This will bring up a pop-up box asking what data you want cleared. Make sure that Cached Images and Files is checked, and include anything else you want to clear. Click on Clear Data, and you’re done.

If for some reason you need another way to clear your cache other than using your keyboard, you can follow the instructions below to arrive in the same place.

1. 1. Go to Settings
   2. At the bottom, click on Advanced
   3. Under Privacy and Security, click on Clear Browsing Data
   4. Check the data you want to clear
   5. Click on Clear Data

To clear everything, it’s best to choose beginning of time.

Clearing Your Cache on Chrome for Mobile

To clear your browsing data on your mobile Chrome browser, follow these steps:

1. Click on the 3 vertical dots in the upper right corner
2. Select Settings
3. In Settings, select privacy
4. From there, you can select the browsing data you want to clear
5. Finish by hitting the Clear Browsing Data button

Apple Safari

In the Safari browser, find and click on Develop in your menu, then click on Empty Caches. If you have a keyboard, you can simply use the Option-Command E shortcut.

If for some reason you don’t see Develop in your menu, you’ll need to enable it first. Click on Preferences, then Advanced, then check Show Develop Menu in Menu Bar.

Clearing Your Cache on Safari for iPhone

Follow these steps to clear your cache on the mobile Safari browser:

1. Go to your settings app
2. Scroll to find Safari and click on the app
3. Then scroll down and click on Clear History and Website Data and click on it once more to confirm

Mozilla Firefox

To clear your cache on Firefox you will take these steps.

1. Click on the menu in the top right corner (it’s the three horizontal lines symbol).
2. Then click preferences
3. Choose Privacy and Security in the left sidebar menu
4. Finally, click Clear Now next to Cashed Web Content

You can also choose ‘clear your recent history under the History section. From there, you will be able to choose what you want to clear in your history as well as the time range.

Clearing your Cache for Firefox Mobile

In order to clear your cache for Mozilla Firefox on mobile follow these four steps:

1. Tap the hamburger menu (three horizontal lines) in the bottom right corner of your app
2. From that menu, select Settings at the bottom
3. Then, select Data Management (you may need to scroll down to find it)
4. Finally, make sure that only cache is selected (unless you want to clear other data) and Clear Private Data

Microsoft Edge

Here’s what you’ll do to clear your cache in Microsoft edge:

1. Click on the 3 horizontal dots in the upper right corner of the browser to see more menu options
2. Then click on Settings
3. Click the Choose What to Clear button under Clear Browsing Data
4. Check the boxes for everything you want to clear, including Cached Data and Files
5. Select Clear