Updated at: May 20, 2024
When you "clear your cache", you are telling your web browser to delete the temporary files it has stored in the process of showing you the websites you've visited. Clearing your cache gets rid of those temporary files and this results in a few things happening.
When you clear your web browser's cache this is generally what happens:
As explained in our article: What Is A Cache? a cache is a collection of temporary files on your device, stored for the websites you visit. You might clear your cache because you are having problems with a website and want to try again with a "clean slate".
Clearing the cache will remove all the temporary copies of a website and it's files, and the next time you visit the site it will be freshly downloaded (and hopefully without problems).
Your cache is stored on your Computer or Phone in a temporary directory - these files take up a bit of space on your disk, so by clearing your cache you are deleting those temporary files which frees up a bit of space on your device.
However your browser cache normally doesn't take up too much space, so this may not make much of a difference to the amount of available space on your device, but it is one of the things that will happen. If you're running out of space on your computer or phone there are more effective ways to reclaim some storage space.
Clear instructions to clear your cache, cookies, and history. follow the guides.
Before you consider clearing your browser cache, you should know what it is.
Have you heard the phrase "clear your cache" but aren't sure what it means?
Not sure why you've been asked to clear your cache?
Need to completely reload a page but don't want to clear your entire cache?
Can clearing cookies help with problems or privacy? Here's some info.
Are there any risks to clearing your cache?
When I decide to clear my cache or cookies, what actually happens?