How do I clear my browser cache and cookies?

'Clear your cache' is the standard first suggestion from support desks, and it is often good advice applied far too broadly. Knowing what each box means turns it into a precise tool rather than a reset.

Step by step

1. Understand what the cache is.Copies of images, styling and scripts kept so pages load faster. When a site changes and your browser keeps the old copy, the page looks broken or shows stale content. Clearing it is harmless.
2. Understand what cookies are.Small files sites use to remember you — including that you are signed in, and your preferences. Clearing them signs you out everywhere and resets cookie banners.
3. Try a forced reload first.Holding shift while clicking reload, or the equivalent keyboard shortcut, fetches a fresh copy of that one page without clearing anything. This fixes most stale-page problems.
4. Clear a single site rather than everything.Click the padlock or information icon in the address bar; every major browser offers to clear cookies and site data for that site alone. This is almost always the right tool.
5. Use the full clearing dialogue deliberately.It is usually under privacy or history settings. Choose the time range, and tick only what you mean — cached files alone if the problem is a broken page.
6. Leave passwords and autofill unticked.Those boxes appear in the same dialogue. Ticking them deletes saved passwords and addresses, which is not recoverable if they were not saved elsewhere.
7. Know that clearing does not delete much space.Caches are typically a few hundred megabytes. If the aim is free disk space, this is not where it is.
8. Expect to sign in again if you cleared cookies.Have your password manager to hand and expect two-factor prompts for accounts that no longer recognise the browser.

Tips

• A private window is an even quicker test: it starts with no cache or cookies, so if the site works there, stored data is the cause.
• Clearing cookies also signs you out of accounts on shared computers, which is a reason to do it deliberately on a machine you are handing back.
• If a site misbehaves only for you and clearing does not help, try disabling extensions before anything more drastic.

Common mistakes

• Clearing everything for all time as a routine — It signs you out of every account, discards every site preference and cookie choice, and rarely fixes anything that clearing one site would not have fixed.
• Ticking the passwords box by accident — It is in the same dialogue and phrased innocuously. Saved passwords are deleted rather than exported, and if they were not synced elsewhere they are gone.

If it doesn't work

Questions people ask