Why and how to clear your cache and cookies

Your internet browser's cache stores certain information (snapshots) of webpages you visit on your computer or mobile device so that they'll load more quickly upon future visits and while navigating through websites that use the same images on multiple pages so that you do not download the same image multiple times. Occasionally, however your cache can prevent you from seeing updated content, or cause functional problems when stored content conflicts with live content. You can fix many browser problems simply by clearing your cache.

This article contains instructions with screenshots on how to clear the cache for the following browsers.

Google Chrome
Mozilla Firefox

If you are unsure of what browser version you are currently using, you can visit whatbrowser.org to find out.

Google Chrome

(Website)

1: Open Chrome.

2: On your browser toolbar, click the Chrome Menu.

3: Click More Tools, then click Clear Browsing Data.

4: In the box that appears, click the check-boxes for "Cookies and other site plug-in data" and "Cached images and files".

5: Use the menu at the top to select the amount of data that you want to delete. Choose beginning of time to delete everything.

Mozilla Firefox

(Website)

1: Click the Menu button and choose Options.

2: Select the Advanced panel.

3: Click on the Network tab.

4: In the Cached Web Content section, click Clear Now.

5: Close the page, all of your changes are saved automatically.