How do I clear my internet cache in Internet Explorer, Firefox & Opera?

Your internet cache stores a copy of each web page you visit on your PC's hard drive, in order to speed up page loading times on sites you revisit within a day or two. This feature serves its intended purpose but can cause problems during the design-proofing process, with clients still seeing the previous version of their site despite a new version being live. Sometimes just pressing your browser's 'Refresh' button can clear this problem. If not, cache files should eventually disappear from your system as newer cache files from other sites take their place but it is also possible to manually clear these files.

We suggest that each time you are asked to review a change made to your web site, you clear your internet cache beforehand, to avoid confusion.

Choose your browser to view the correct instructions:

Internet Explorer 6 (PC) | Internet Explorer 7 (PC) |
Firefox 1.5 (PC) | Firefox 2 (PC) | Opera (PC)


Internet Explorer 6.0Instructions for clearing your internet cache in Internet Explorer 6 (PC)

1. In Internet Explorer 6, first navigate away from any page suspected to be cached.

2. Click 'Tools' in the top left corner, then click 'Internet Options'.

3. A window will pop open. Select 'Delete Files'.

4. A window will pop up, make sure you have 'Delete all offline content' ticked.

5. Select 'OK'.

6. Then click the 'OK' button near the bottom. This may take a few minutes.

7. Now restart Internet Explorer and return to the page which was previously cached.

8. If you still see the old version of the site, try one more 'Refresh'.

 


Instructions for clearing your internet cache in Internet Explorer 7 (PC)

1. In Internet Explorer 7, first navigate away from any page suspected to be cached.

2. Click 'Tools' in the top right corner, then click 'Internet Options'.


3. A window will pop open. Select 'Delete' from the 'Browsing History' section.


4. A window will pop up, click 'Delete files' in the Temporary Internet Files section.


5. Select 'Yes'. The files will now be deleted, this may take a few minutes.



6. When this has completed, restart Internet Explorer and return to the page which was previously cached.

7. If you still see the old version of the site, try one more 'Refresh'.

 


Instructions for clearing your internet cache in Firefox version 1.5 (PC)

1. In Firefox version 1.5, first navigate away from any page suspected to be cached.

2. Click 'Tools' then select 'Options' from the menu.


3. In the 'Privacy' tab, there is a section called 'Cache'. Click to view this section.

4. If you click the 'Settings' button you can control which saved elements will be cleared when you press 'Clear Cache Now'. It is recommended you leave 'Cookies' and 'Saved Passwords' unticked here.

5. Click 'Clear Cache Now'.

6. Restart Firefox and revisit the previously cached site.

 


Instructions for clearing your internet cache in FIREFOX 2.0 (PC)

1. In Firefox, first navigate away from any page suspected to be cached.


2. Click 'Tools' then select 'Clear Private Data' from the menu.

3. You will be given options on what information can be cleared. As long as 'Cache' is ticked in the list, your cache will be cleared. It is recommended you leave 'Cookies' and 'Saved Passwords' unticked here.


4. Click 'Clear Private Data Now'.


5. Restart Firefox and revisit the previously cached site

 


Instructions for clearing your internet cache in Opera (PC)

1. In Opera, first navigate away from any page suspected to be cached.

2. Click 'Tools' then select 'Delete Private Data'

3. If details of what it proposes to delete are hidden, click 'Details'

4. Untick any which mention cookies, then click 'Delete'.

5. Restart Opera and revisit the previously cached site

 

Finally

If the above steps do not fix the problem, it is possible that the files are being cached by a web server in-between your computer and our server. Please call the webteam on 01253 783227 to discuss further steps we can take to temporarily work around the problem.