How to Clear Cache and Hard Reload Browsers

Getting Started

Using Chrome Developer Tools

Assuming you have the Chrome browser window opened, press Control+Shift+I on Windows and Command+Option+I on MacOS. This opens the Chrome Developer Tools. When the Developer Tools console is open, right-click on the Reload button. A drop-down menu with three options is displayed:

  1. Normal Reload
  2. Hard Reload
  3. Empty Cache and Hard Reload

Normal Reload– Uses cached data. Press F5 to initiate normal reload.

Hard Reload– Forces the browser to re-download items and reload. It is possible that used resources may come from a cached version. Press Control+F5 or Control+Shift+R to initiate a hard reload.

Empty Cache and Hard Reload– The cache for the page is cleared completely, and everything will be re-downloaded.

Using Firefox Developer Tools

With the Firefox browser open, press Shift+F2 to open the Developer Toolbar. This usually appears at the bottom of the browser window. Type “app cache clear”, then Enter, to clear the cache.

Using Safari Developer Tools

To enable the clearing of cache and hard reloading in Safari for Mac, press the Shift+Command+R button on the Safari Web Inspector. To force clear a single page’s cache, click on the Shift+Reload button in the address or search bar. The advantage of this method is that it does not clear all other browser caches from Safari, it focuses on that specific page only.

Clearing the browser cache is quite simple to carry out in different browsers. Let’s have a look at some of them.

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