How to clear Netscape web browser cache

Monday, 7th February 2005

Netscape 6.x and 7.x (Windows, Mac):

  1. From the Edit drop-down menu at the top of the browser, select Preferences.
  2. A thread-hierarchy appears on the left of the Preferences dialog box. Click on the arrow to the left of Advanced.
  3. Under the expanded Advanced portion of the hierarchy is Cache. Click the word Cache. This will change the right side of the Preferences dialog box.
  4. Click the Clear Memory Cache button on the right of the Preferences dialog box.
  5. Click the Clear Disk Cache button on the right of the Preferences dialog box.
  6. Click OK to leave Preferences.
  7. Click the Reload button at the top of your browser. (This button is to the right of the Forward button.)

Netscape 4.x (Windows):

  1. Select ‘Edit > Preferences’ from the main menu.
  2. Select ‘Advanced > Cache’ from the panel on the left.
  3. Click the Clear Memory Cache button on the right of the Preferences dialog box.
  4. A dialog box will appear that says, ‘This will remove all the files currently in your memory cache. Continue?’ Click the OK button.
  5. Click the Clear Disk Cache button on the right of the Preferences dialog box.
  6. A dialog box will appear that says, ‘This will remove all the files in your disk cache. Continue?’ Click the OK button.
  7. Click OK until you leave Preferences.
  8. Click the Reload button at the top of your browser. (This button is to the right of the Forward button.)

Tip: Navigator 3.x and Communicator 4.x users: If you’re often having to reload frequently updated pages, you may want to take this chance to set ‘Verify Documents’ option to ‘Every Time.’ This will make the browser retreive the latest copy of a web page even if it’s in the cache.

Netscape 4.x (Mac):

  1. From the Edit drop-down menu at the top of the browser, select Preferences.
  2. A thread-hierarchy appears on the left of the Preferences dialog box. Click to the left of the word Advanced to expand it.
  3. The first item under the expanded Advanced portion is Cache. Click the word Cache. This will change the right of the Preferences dialog box.
  4. Click the Clear Disk Cache button on the right of the Preferences dialog box.
  5. A dialog box will appear that says, ‘This will remove all the files in your disk cache. Continue?’ Click the OK button.
  6. Click OK until you leave Preferences.
  7. Click the Reload button at the top of your browser. (This button is to the right of the Forward button.)

Netscape Navigator 3.x:

  1. Select ‘Options > Network Preferences’ from the main menu.
  2. Change to the ‘Cache’ tab.
  3. Click on ‘Clear Memory Cache Now’ and ‘Clear Disk Cache Now’ buttons to clear memory and disk cache.

Tip: Although it’s not required by all browsers, it is a good idea to restart your browser after clearing the cache.


How and why should I clear my web browser’s cache?

Friday, 4th February 2005

For information on how to clear your browser’s cache, please refer to the links at the bottom of this post.

Your browser cache consists of items you have seen, heard, or downloaded from the Web, including images, sounds and Web pages. Storing these files in your cache can make browsing the Web faster because your computer will be able to display cached items more quicklyas it won’t have to download them again from the Internet.

All the files stored in your cache take up disk space, so from time to time, you may want to clear out the files stored in your cache to free up some space on your computer.

Also, you may find that if you visit a web site has been recently updated and a previous version of this page exists in your cache, your computer may display the page in your cache. Therefore you will be viewing out-of-date information - clearing your browser’s cache should fix this problem.