This post compliments our How to Clear IE 10 Cache article and shows you how easy it is to clear cache files from Chrome.
What is Caching?
Web browsers store temporary files such as text, images and other data on your local computer for faster browsing. This is called caching.
The browser looks at its local copy of the files and decides whether or not to show you those rather than downloading new files from the website.
However, sometimes this process can become broken and rather than seeing the new files on the website your browser will show the local out-of-date files.
So how do you fix this?
Easy. You need to the clear the web browser’s cache which will delete all those local files and force it to download fresh new copies from the website.
Clearing Chrome Cache Files
- Open up the Chrome browser (duh)
- From the toolbar, click on the menu link in the top right hand side of the browser (horizontal three bar icon)
Click on “Settings”.
- This opens up the Settings page which by default does not show any of the advanced settings that we need access to.
At the bottom of the settings page click on “Show advanced settings”.
- This will expand the settings page showing advanced options.
Click on the “Clear browsing data…” button.
- Finally we get to the settings that we need to clear the cache files.
Uncheck all options except “Delete cookies and other site and plug-in date” and “Empty the cache”.
You’ll also need to choose how far back in time you want to delete from. If in doubt select “the beginning of time”.
Click on the “Clear browsing data”.
That’s it done! Chrome does not give you any confirmation dialog box upon completion.
If you have selected “the beginning of time” option it may take some time for Chrome to delete all the files and you will see an ajax-like spinner graphic just next to the “Clear browsing data” button while it is performing the operation.
Extra Tip – Go Incognito
How do you know if your cache is out-of-date compared with the live website?
Easy. Start up an Chrome Incognito browser window and navigate to your website.
Incognito browsing does not store cache on the local machine. Chrome will always download the files from the website when Incognito browsing.
To open this up, from the menu select “New incognito window” or use <CTRL> + <Shift> + N
