To speed things up and conserve communications bandwidth, browsers attempt to keep local copies of pages, images, and other content you’ve visited, so that it need not be downloaded again later. Occasionally this caching scheme goes awry (e.g. the browser insists on showing out-of-date content) making it necessary to bypass the cache, thus forcing your browser to re-download a web page’s complete, up-to-date content. This is sometimes referred to as a “hard refresh”, “cache refresh”, or “uncached reload”. The rest of your cache is not affected.

Google Chrome

To clear the cache:

1. Go to the “Tools” menu (the three horizontal ellipsis on the upper right of the browser) and click on “History” (Shortcut: Ctrl+H).
2. Click on “Clear browsing data…” (Shortcut: Ctrl+⇧ Shift+Del).
3. Select the types of data you want to clear, include “Cached images and files” option.

Microsoft Edge

Click the ellipsis in the upper right-hand corner. Navigate to “Settings”, “Clear browsing data” and then “Choose what to clear”. Tick only the box: “Cached data and files”

Internet Explorer

To completely clear the cache in Internet Explorer 9 and later versions:

1. Click “Tools” (the Gear-shaped button on the top-right section of the browser), point to “Safety” and click “Delete Browsing History…” (keyboard shortcut: Ctrl+⇧ Shift+Del).
2. Select “Temporary Internet Files” at the top, and click “Delete”. (If Wikipedia is in your list of favorites, you may need to turn off the “Preserve Favorites website data” at the top of the dialog box.)
3. Internet Explorer will now silently delete the items you have chosen. Once finished, the notification bar appears at the bottom of the screen, stating that the selected browsing history has been deleted.

To completely clear the cache in Internet Explorer 8:

• Click the “Tools” menu then select “Delete Browsing History”.

To completely clear the cache in Internet Explorer 7:

• Click “Tools” and select “Internet Options”, choose the “General” tab and click “Delete Files” under the Temporary Internet Files section. If you want, you can also opt to delete cookies and browsing history.

To completely clear the cache in older versions of Internet Explorer:

• Click on “Tools” and then “Internet Options”, and choose the “General” tab. Then click on “Delete…” under “Browsing history”. In the “Temporary Internet files” section, click “Delete Files…”. You will then get a dialogue box asking if you want to delete just the temporary files, or all off-line content. Choose the latter and click “OK”.

Firefox and other related browsers

To completely clear the cache:

• Click the “Open menu” button (three stacked, horizontal bars in the upper right corner). Select “Options”, then the “Privacy & Security” section. Go to the “Cookies and Site Data” subsection and click the “Clear Data…” button. Make sure the box for “Cached Web Content” is checked and click “Clear”, (be sure the “Cookies and Site Data” box is unchecked if you do not want to clear this data as well).
• In versions of Firefox that display a single, orange “Firefox” button: click the “Firefox” button and click “Options”. Select the “Advanced” section, and go to the “Network” tab, and click the “Clear Now” button. Then click “OK”.
• When Firefox displays a menu bar, from the “Edit” or “Tools” menu, choose “Preferences” or “Options”. Select the “Advanced” section, and go to the “Network” tab. Click the button called “Clear Now”. Then click “OK”.
• In SeaMonkey and later versions of Netscape, choose Edit ▸ Preferences…, expand the “Advanced” section and choose “Cache”. Click on the “Clear Cache” button.

Safari

To completely clear the cache:

• Use keyboard shortcut ⌥ Opt+⌘ Cmd+E to instantly clear all caches

Alternatively:

1. From the “Safari” menu, choose “Preferences…” (Shortcut: ⌘ Cmd+,)
2. Click on the “Advanced” tab
3. Check the box at the bottom next to “Show Develop menu in menu bar”
4. Close preferences and click Develop ‣ Empty Caches