Clearing Your Mac Safari Browser Cache

Safari keeps a cache of files to speed up page loading and minimize bandwidth usage. For the most part it maintains itself. But if you need to clear the cache while publishing or developing a website, you can do so using one of several methods in Safari. You can clear all data from a specific site, enable the Develop menu to clear the cache with a keyboard shortcut, or manually delete the cache files in the Finder.

Comments: 12 Responses to “Clearing Your Mac Safari Browser Cache”

    Douglas Brace
    6 years ago

    Gary, besides the ability to pick-and-chose individual website or Internet locations, what is the difference between going to (a) "Safari Preference..." > "Privacy" > "Manage Website Data..." to clear your cache and going to (b) "Safari Menu" > "Clear History..."? I ask because the "Clear History..." option says "Clearing history will remove related cookies and other website data" and going into "Safari Preferences" seems to require extra steps.

    6 years ago

    History is something different. It is the list of pages you have visited recently. Just links. It doesn't take up much space. It is just so you can go back to a page you visited. The cache is data and media stored to make viewing other pages at the same site faster. Think of it like this, if it were books: The History is like a piece of paper with a list of the books you have. The Cache is the actual books.

    Robin
    6 years ago

    Gary - When I clear the cache from Safari preferences does it also clear the Google Chrome cache? Thanks!

    6 years ago

    Robin: No. Separate apps, so separate caches.

    Chris Caldwell
    6 years ago

    Gary, I keep trying to delete the website data from the privacy tab in safari preferences. Everyday, a certain website shows up in the cookies file. How do stop this? I've tried going to the cookies file folder and deleting the site from there too. Nothing works. It reappears every day. Thank you

    Ertugrul
    6 years ago

    Gary, it is very useful topic for me to understand how safari (or other browsers) works... However, my question is what if I delete Library > Safari > Database, everything under this folder. What is the actual result of this action? Will it kill all entries (e.g. password related) to these sites, we saved before..? Is this because I am living problems about entering my online bank account for a while (several months I guess)..? ... ...
    Thank you...

    6 years ago

    Ertugrul: Deleting that would erase information that the site is storing, but I can't know what exactly. Only the site developer would know. But instead of that, just use Safari, Preferences, Privacy, Website Data and search for and delete only that site. Then it would just clear the information about that site. Don't know if that will help your problem, though. You may need to also check Safari, Preferences, Passwords and look for that site.

    6 years ago

    Chris: So when you visit the site, a new cookie appears? That's normal. Or, if you visit a site and that site accesses a third-party site (like an ad network). Normal too. What is your concern?

    Jean-Pierre A Zacaropoulos
    6 years ago

    Would appreciate if you could do the same for Google Chrome.
    Thanks in advance.

    6 years ago

    Jean-Pierre: In Chrome it is just Chrome, Preferences, Advanced, Clear Browser Data.

    Dr Ashish Jain
    6 years ago

    When I look at the pull down menu of GO I do not see Library there , what do I do?
    Which option will delete even the passwords stored by the safari ?

    6 years ago

    Ashish: While looking at the Go menu, hold down the Option key on your keyboard. If you want to delete passwords from Safari, go to Safari, Preferences, Passwords.

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