Web browsers store information on your computer. This is generally helpful, but can occasionally cause problems. Find out when to clear and when to keep.

What is a Cache?
Web browsers (Firefox, Safari, Chrome, and Internet Explorer) maintain a local copy of web pages and other related items on your disk or in memory to speed up reloading of previously visited pages from the Internet. While this generally improves your browsing experience, it can slow things down if it gets too big. It may also prevent a web page from loading in the most up-to-date information. If you are having either of these problems, try clearing your browser cache.

What are Cookies?
Some websites store information in a small text file, called a "cookie" on your hard disk. Cookies typically contain information about you and your preferences for a website. For example, if you look at a flight schedule on an airline's website, the site might create a cookie that records the pages you visited on the site. That way, the site can customize the pages you see the next time you visit.

If you get an error about cookie problems you may want to remove the cookies; just remember that you may experience inconveniences when you visit certain sites.

Clearing the Cache and/or Cookies

Firefox

1. In Firefox, select Tools→"Clear Recent History..." (In some recent installations of Firefox for Windows you may find this under Firefox→History.)
2. For "Time range to clear" select "Everything."
3. Uncheck everything except "Cookies" and/or "Cache".
4. Click "Clear Now."

Safari

1. In Safari, select "Safari→Reset Safari..." (Mac) or "Edit→Reset Safari..." (Windows).
2. To remove cookies, uncheck everything except "Remove all Cookies" (Windows) or "Remove all website data " (Mac).
3. Click "Reset."
4. To empty the cache, select "Safari-->Empty Cache", and confirm you want to empty the cache.

Internet Explorer

1. In Internet Explorer, select "Safety→Delete Browsing History..."
2. Uncheck everything except "Cookies" and/or "Temporary Internet files."
3. Click "Delete."

Chrome

1. In Chrome, select "Chrome→Clear Browsing Data..."
2. For "Obliterate the following items from:" select "the beginning of time."
3. Uncheck everything except "Delete cookies and other site and plug-in data" and/or "Empty the Cache."
4. Click "Clear Browsing Data."