A cache is a type of memory used to speed up certain programs. It’s also known as “temporary memory” and has a relatively small capacity.
What is a browser cache?
It’s a portion of memory that stores the data you use to access certain websites and online programs. As a result, your browser opens the pages you visit often much faster.
HTML code, images and sometimes even your username and password (depending on your settings) are stored to make it easier for you to return to the same site.
Why you should clear it from time to time
Even though it’s an extremely simple process, not all web users are in the habit of clearing their cache regularly. So why should you?
- To see the most up-to-date version of the sites you visit. For example, the cache may still hold old data from an online store or a web application.
- To free up space on your device. Although the cache has a small capacity, the data stored there can take up several gigabytes and slow down your computer, smartphone or tablet.
How do you clear the cache?
In the most widely used browser, Google Chrome, clearing the cache regularly is fairly easy. On desktop, just click the three vertical dots in the top-right corner, go to “More tools” and click “Clear browsing data”.
From there you can choose whether to clear all cached data or only the most recent, select only certain websites, and so on. The process is very similar on Android and iOS.
What do you delete when you do this?
Don’t worry: when you clear a device’s cache, you don’t lose all the data saved on it. Only the temporary memory is affected, not the main memory that holds all your important data.
To avoid deleting data by mistake, Android, for example, uses a separate cache for each app, so you can choose to clear just some of them or all of them at once.
This is very useful when your device starts crashing or causing browsing problems. It means the temporary memory is overloaded, perhaps with data from websites and apps you no longer use.
Other types worth knowing
So far we’ve talked about the browser cache, but it’s certainly not the only kind of temporary memory on your devices.
Here are a few others worth knowing:
- The CPU cache is the memory the device’s processor uses to access internal memory faster.
- The page cache is the part of RAM used to hold copies of data in use from the hard drive.
- The disk cache is very similar to RAM; it can be built into a hard drive and speeds up reading from it.
- WordPress offers cache plugins that store static pages so your blog loads more smoothly.