Technical Difficulties or Printing Problems? Try Clearing Your Cache, Cookies & History

by | May 7, 2013 | Frequently Asked Questions | 0 comments

Computer RepairWe often get questions from people experiencing problems printing coupons or websites not displaying properly on their computer.  There are a number of things that can cause printing and technical problems, but one thing you can do is to clear your cache, cookies and history.

About Cache, Cookies, and History

What is a cache?
When you access any website through your web browser, the browser caches (or stores) it. By caching the sites you visit, the browser doesn't have to retrieve new files or images each time you click Back or Forward. You should periodically clear your cache to allow your browser to function more efficiently and to be sure the information and images you are seeing are being displayed correctly.

What is a cookie?
A cookie is a file that is stored on your computer which was created by your web browser at the request of a web site. These files typically store user-specific information such as selections in a form, shopping cart contents, or authentication data. Browsers will normally clear cookies after a certain number of days (depending on your browser settings), but clearing them manually can sometimes solve problems with web sites or your browser.

What is a history?
A browser's history is a log of sites that you have visited. When you click your browser's Back button, you are moving back one entry in the history log. Browsers will normally clear the history at regular intervals, but you may want to clear it manually from time to time.

Clearing your cache, cookies and history should be a regular maintenance item for any computer and can help keep your computer running smoothly.  The procedure to clear them differs depending on the browser you use. Here are some instructions for several different browsers.

Internet Explorer 9 and 8

  1. Click Tools, and select Delete Browsing History.
  2. Deselect Preserve Favorites website data.
  3. Select Temporary Internet files, Cookies, and History.
  4. Click Delete.

Internet Explorer 7

  1. From the Tools menu in the upper right, select Delete Browsing History.
  2. To delete your cache, click Delete files.
  3. To delete your cookies, click Delete cookies.
  4. To delete your history, click Delete history.
  5. Click Close, and then click OK to exit.

Firefox

The following instructions apply to Firefox 3.5 and later.

  1. From the Tools menu, select Clear Recent History.
    (In Firefox 4 and above for Windows, you can also click the orange Firefox button, and then select Clear Recent History from the History menu.)
    If the menu bar is hidden, press Alt to make it visible.
  2. From the Time range to clear: drop-down menu, select the desired range; to clear your entire cache, select Everything.
  3. Click the down arrow next to “Details” to choose which elements of the history to clear. Click Clear Now.

Chrome

  1. In the browser bar, enter: chrome://settings/clearBrowserData
  2. Select the items you want to clear (e.g., Clear browsing history, Clear download history, Empty the cache, Delete cookies and other site and plug-in data).
  3. From the Obliterate the following items from: drop-down menu, you can choose the period of time for which you want to clear cached information. To clear your entire cache, select the beginning of time.
  4. Click Clear browsing data.

Opera

  1. From the Opera menu, select Settings, and then Delete Private Data.
  2. In the dialog box that opens, select the items you want to clear, and then click Delete.

Safari

  1. From the Safari menu, select Reset Safari.
  2. From the menu, select the items you want to reset, and then click Reset.
    As of Safari 5.1, Remove all website data covers both cookies and cache.

Mobile Safari for iPhone OS (iPhone, iPod touch, iPad)

To clear cache and cookies:

  1. From the home screen, tap Settings, and then tap Safari.
  2. At the bottom of Safari's settings screen, tap Clear cookies and data, or Clear Cookies and Clear Cache.
  3. Confirm when prompted.

To clear history:

  1. From the home screen, tap Safari.
  2. At the bottom of the screen, tap the Bookmarks icon.
  3. In the lower left, tap Clear.
  4. Tap Clear History.

Android

  1. Start your browser.
  2. Tap Menu, and then tap More.
  3. Select Settings.
  4. Under “Privacy settings”, select Clear cache, Clear history, or Clear all cookie data as appropriate, and then tap OK to accept (or Cancel to cancel) the deletion.

If you are still experiencing technical difficulties, see THIS POST for some other things that may help.