Your browser stores pieces of the pages you have already visited, such as images, so those pages open faster the next time. The BBC’s own fix for a stuck BBC Sounds app is exactly that: sign out of your account, then clear the cache. ZDNET makes the wider case for a whole Mac. Clearing the browser and the app cache, it says, can settle a slow machine and free up storage.
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The trade is real, though smaller than it sounds. Empty the cache on its own and a page loads a little slower once, then speeds back up as the pieces refill. Empty the cookies alongside it, and you sign back in everywhere. Here is where each browser hides the switch, and what each one actually takes with it.
Chrome, on a computer
Open the three-dot menu at the top right and pick Delete browsing data, or skip the menu and paste chrome://settings/clearBrowserData into the address bar. Set the range to All time, tick Cached images and files, and leave everything else unticked if cookies and history are staying put. The BBC’s help page describes the same dialogue, reached from the same three dots, and calls the equivalent setting “Beginning of time” for wiping the lot.
Safari, on a Mac
Safari offers a rough route and a careful one. The rough one, from ZDNET: open History in the menu bar, choose Clear History, select All history, and confirm. That takes your browsing history and your saved site data too, so expect to be signed out of some sites.
The careful route leaves both alone. Open Safari Settings, then the Advanced tab, and switch on Show features for web developers. A new Develop menu appears in the bar above. Choose Empty Caches from it, and nothing else about the browser changes.
Firefox and Edge, on a computer
The BBC’s page covers both. In Firefox, the Tools menu holds Clear Private Data, where confirming the Cache box is ticked and pressing Clear Private Data Now does the job. In Edge, the three-dot menu opens Settings, then Privacy, search, and services, then Choose what to clear, and picking All time there empties the whole store.
Safari and Chrome, on an iPhone
Apple gives Safari no separate cache switch of its own. Engadget is blunt about the consequence: clearing history on an iPhone takes the cache with it, along with the cookies, the site permissions, and every sign-in. There is no way to keep just one. Reach the setting through Safari’s bookmarks icon, then the small clock for history, then the same three dots again, then Clear, choosing how far back to go.
Chrome on the same phone is more forgiving. Its own three-dot menu leads through Settings and Privacy and security to Delete browsing data, where Cached images and files can be ticked without touching anything else.
iOS also keeps a system cache behind the apps, and no setting menu reaches it directly. A restart is the fix Engadget names, since that is what flushes it.
One app, not the whole browser
Sometimes a single app is the problem while the browser beside it works fine. On Android, the BBC’s instructions for its Sounds app run like this: long-press its icon, open App info, then Storage and cache, then Clear cache.
On an iPhone, a few apps put the same switch in their own settings. Spotify buries its version under Data-saving and offline, where Clear beside Clear cache leaves your downloads in place. Telegram keeps a fuller tool under Storage Usage, broken down chat by chat. An app with no such switch, such as Instagram, still yields to a workaround. Find it under iPhone Storage in the phone’s own settings, then tap Offload App. That clears its stored files while keeping your account and your data, and tapping Reinstall App afterwards brings it straight back.
None of this needs doing often. A phone builds a new cache shortly after you clear it. Engadget’s advice is to clear it when an app starts acting up, not as a habit.
