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Clear Cache on Mac Operating System

Updated over a year ago

Safari:

  1. Click the Safari drop-down menu and select Preferences.

    Safari brower's drop down menu open. Highlighting Preferences
  2. Click the Advanced icon at the top and tick the box at the bottom for “Show Develop menu in menu bar.”

    Safari's Advanced menu opened. Highlight: Show Develop menu in menu bar
  3. Select the Develop drop down menu and click Empty Caches.

    Safari's Develop drop down menu. Highlighting Empty Caches

There’s also a keyboard shortcut for emptying the cache in Safari: Command + Option + E. This shortcut automatically clears the Safari cache without you having to search for it.

Google Chrome

Here’s how to clear the browser cache for Google Chrome on a Mac:

  1. Click on the three dots in the top-right corner of your Chrome browser window and select Settings.

    Chrome's drop down menu opened. Highlighting Settings.
  2. On the left, choose Privacy and security and then select Clear browsing data.

    Chrome's preferences menu opened. Highlighting Privacy and Security tab on left. And highlighting the option Clear browsing data.
  3. Under Time range, choose how far back you want your data to be cleared. All time will clear all of your cached data.

    Chrome's clear browsing data option specifying the time range of All Time.
  4. Check the box for Cached images and files and then hit Clear data.

    Chrome's Clear Browsing data feature menu with option to clear cached images and files.

To clear your Mac Chrome cache more quickly, use the keyboard shortcut Command + Shift + Delete.

Firefox

Here’s how to clear the browser cache for Firefox on a Mac:

  1. Choose History from the top menu bar and select Clear Recent History.

    Firefox's History Dropdown menu, highlighting Clear Recent History
  2. Under the Time range to clear, select Everything. Or choose another option to clear only recent cache files.

    Firefox's Clear history feature. Selecting time range: Everything.
  3. Tick the box for Cache and then click OK.

    Firefox's Clear All History Menu. Highlight: The option for Cache is ticked. 2nd Highlight: OK.

You can also use the Firefox keyboard shortcut Command + Shift + Delete to pull up the Clear All History menu.


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