To save bandwidth most computer Web browsers store many parts of web pages in its local cache (normally on your hard drive), so that they are downloaded only once. This includes articles you’ve previously viewed, images previously displayed, style sheets, JavaScript, Virtual Tours etc.

Sometimes this has the undesired—and highly confusing—result that a recent change appears to be ignored.

When you encounter odd behavior, please try instructing your browser to bypass the cache so that the whole page is reloaded even if there is a cached copy. Normally, revisiting the cached page, or clicking “Refresh” or “Reload”, will cause the browser to ask the Web site if there is a newer version available.

In unusual circumstances, it may be worth clearing the entire cache, or—at the extreme—disable browser caching entirely.

America Online

• To completely clear the cache:
  • Click on the ‘Settings’ icon, then ‘Internet [Web] Options’. Under ‘Related Settings’, click on ‘Internet Explorer Settings’ and follow the instructions for Internet Explorer.

Internet Explorer

• To reload a page and bypass the cache:
  • either: Hold the Ctrl key, and press F5.
  • or: Hold the Ctrl key, and click the Refresh button on the Start bar.
• To completely clear the cache:
  • Internet Explorer 7
    • Click “tools”, “Delete Browsing History”, and then “delete all”. Make sure to click on the checkbox also delete settings stored by add-ons. Then click OK.
  • Old versions
    • Click on ‘Tools’ and then ‘Internet Options’ and choose the ‘General’ tab. Then click on “Delete…” under “Browsing history”. In the ‘Temporary Internet files’ section, click ‘Delete Files…’. You will then get a dialogue box asking if you want to delete just the temporary files, or all offline content. Choose the latter and click ‘OK’.
• To change cache settings (only do this if you are reasonably confident of what you are doing):
  • Selecting ‘Tools’ → ‘Internet Options’ → ‘Temporary Internet files’ → ‘Settings…’ allows you to make advanced configuration changes to the cache.
    • There is an option labeled “Check for a new version of stored pages:” This does not bypass the cache, it merely determines how often the browser asks if there is a newer version available.

Konqueror

• To reload a page and bypass the cache:
  • either: Press F5.
  • or: Click the Reload button on the toolbar.
  • (Unlike other browsers, Konqueror seems to bypass its cache whenever you reload a page.)
• To completely clear the cache:
  • From the ‘Settings’ menu, select ‘Configure Konqueror’. Scroll down to select the icon labeled ‘Cache’, and click the button labeled ‘Clear Cache’.

Mozilla family

This includes Firefox, Netscape Navigator (versions 6.x and 7.x) and SeaMonkey.

• To reload a page and bypass the cache:
  • either: Press both Shift and Ctrl and then press R. (Alternatively, hold down the Ctrl key, and press F5.) On an Apple Mac, use the Command key instead of Ctrl.
  • or: Hold down the Shift key, and click the Reload button on the navigation toolbar.
• To completely clear the cache (see note above):
  • From the ‘Edit’ or ‘Tools’ menu, choose ‘Preferences’ or ‘Options’. Expand the ‘Advanced’ options and choose ‘Cache’ or ‘Privacy’. Click the button called ‘Clear Cache’.
  • In newer versions of Mozilla Firefox, you can easily clear the cache, history and cookies: Hold down the Ctrl and Shift keys, and press Delete (or Del), then choose what you want to remove. Or from the ‘Tools’ menu, select ‘Clear Private Data’.
  • For older versions of Mozilla Firefox, go to ‘Tools’ → ‘Options’ and click on ‘Privacy’ (picture of a key) in the sidebar of the window that pops up. Click the ‘Clear’ button that is next to the word ‘Cache’.
• To disable caching (only do this if you are reasonably confident in what you are doing):
  • For Firefox
    • Choose Tools | Options…
    • Choose Advanced at the top
    • Choose the Network tab
    • Change the cache size to 0 (zero).
  • For SeaMonkey
    • Choose Edit | Preferences…
    • Expand the Advanced item near the left bottom
    • Choose Cache item
    • Change the Size value to 0 (zero).

Opera

• Reloading a page:
  • Hold down the Shift key, and click the Reload button on the navigation toolbar.
  • Or Empty the cache completely (see below).
  • Or Click edit this page, and save the page without making any modifications (this doesn’t affect the page history).
• To completely clear the cache :
  • From the ‘Tools’ menu, choose ‘Preferences’. Expand the ‘Advanced’ options and choose ‘History’. Click the button called ‘Empty now’.
  • Alternatively, you can easily clear the cache, history and cookies: From the ‘Tools’ menu, choose ‘Delete private data’. Click ‘Details’, make sure that ‘Delete entire cache’ is selected, and then choose any other data you want to remove.
• To disable the cache permanently (only do this if you are reasonably confident of what you are doing):
  • From the ‘Tools’ menu, choose ‘Preferences’. Expand the ‘Advanced’ options and choose ‘History’. Click on the dropdown for ‘Disk Cache’ and select Off.

Safari

• To reload a page and bypass the cache:
  • for version 3 or newer:
  • either: Hold down the Command key, and press R.
  • or: Click the Reload toolbar button.
  • (In Safari 3, “regular” reloads will always bypass the cache. [1])
  • for version 2 or older:
  • either: Hold down the Command and Shift keys, and press R.
  • or: Hold down the Shift key and click the Reload toolbar button. (This may not work in all versions of Safari)
• To completely clear the cache:
  • From the ‘Safari’ menu, choose ‘Empty Cache…’ or hold down the Option and Command keys and press E.
• To disable the cache permanently (this method only works on old versions of Safari 2 on OS X 10.4 and previous versions, and is not recommended as it may potentially (although rarely) cause system instability):
  • Quit Safari by choosing ‘Quit’ from the ‘Safari’ menu, or by holding down the Command key and pressing Q.
  • Open a Terminal window by double-clicking ‘Terminal’ within the ‘Utilities’ folder, which is within the ‘Applications’ folder.
  • Type the following commands, which are case-sensitive, each followed by the Enter key:
    • rm -rf ~/Library/Caches/Safari
    • touch ~/Library/Caches/Safari
  • Quit Terminal by choosing ‘Quit’ from the ‘Terminal’ menu, or by holding down the Command key and pressing Q.
  • Relaunch Safari.

Flock

• To completely clear the cache:
  • Go to the Tools menu and click on Options
  • Go to Privacy and then, under Privacy, click on Cache
  • Click on Clear Cache Now
• Flock v1.0.8 for Mac Instructions:
  • Go to the Flock menu and click on Preferences
  • Go to Privacy tab and then, under Private Data (bottom field), click on the Clear Now… button
  • Select the Cache checkbox (only, or in combination with other desired options)
  • Click the Clear Private Data Now button

Google Chrome

• To clear the cache:
  • Go to the Tools menu (the wrench on the upper right of the browser) and click on Clear browsing data…
  • Select the types of data you want to clear
  • On the Clear data from this period: drop-down list, select one of the following:

Everything to clear all the data you selected;