Clear cache and cookies – in every browser, on your computer and your phone

The cache is the browser's temporary storage. It holds images, fonts, stylesheets and scripts from websites you have visited before. On your next visit, the browser does not need to download these parts again, so the page appears faster. It becomes a problem when a website has changed but the browser still uses the old copy from the cache.

Cookies are small text files that a website places in your browser. They remember that you are logged in, what is in your basket, which language you chose or whether you have already dismissed a cookie banner. There are also cookies that recognise you across several websites, mainly for advertising.

After clearing, you are signed out of most websites, baskets are empty, cookie banners appear again and pages load a little more slowly on the first visit because the browser fetches everything fresh. Saved passwords are kept as long as you do not tick the corresponding box. If you have a lot of logins, a password manager keeps you on the safe side.

Clearing helps when a website loads incorrectly or incompletely, shows an old layout, reports odd errors after an update or a login gets stuck in a loop. It is also often the fix when an online shop will not accept a discount code or a form refuses to submit. Test in private mode first: if the page works there, the cache or cookies are almost certainly to blame.

It will not help against a slow internet connection, an outage at the provider or adverts and pop-ups coming from an installed extension. Nor does it remove malware from your device; for that you need an antivirus scanner. And it does not make the browser permanently faster, quite the opposite: right after clearing, familiar pages load more slowly once.

A word on VPNs: a VPN hides your IP address but is no substitute for clearing cookies. Whatever recognises you through cookies still does so with a VPN switched on.

Often it is enough to clean up just one problematic website. That way you stay logged in everywhere else. All the major browsers offer a searchable list of stored website data for this.

In Chrome on a computer you will find it under «Settings» > «Privacy and security» > «Third-party cookies» > «See all site data and permissions»; on Android via the page info icon in the address bar > «Cookies and site data». In Firefox the path is «Privacy & Security» > «Manage Data…», or you click the icon to the left of the address bar and choose «Clear Cookies and Site Data…». In Edge, go to «Privacy, search, and services» > «Cookies» > «See all cookies and site data».

In Safari on a Mac, select the website under «Privacy» > «Manage Website Data» and click «Remove». On an iPhone, the list is under «Settings» > «Apps» > «Safari» > «Advanced» > «Website Data».

Firefox and Edge can delete cookies and cache automatically every time you close the browser. In Firefox: «Privacy & Security» > «History» section > «Firefox will» > «Use custom settings for history» > «Clear history when Firefox closes» > «Settings…», then tick the data types you want. In Edge: «Privacy, search, and services» > «Clear browsing data» > «Choose what to clear every time you close the browser». The downside is obvious: you have to sign in again everywhere every time, and every cookie banner comes back.

Private mode (called «Incognito» in Chrome and «Private Browsing» in Safari) keeps cookies and cache only for as long as the window is open and discards them afterwards. It is handy for testing and for logging in on someone else's device, but it does not make you anonymous: your internet provider, your employer on the company network and the websites you visit can still see what you open.

Tracking protection is the gentler approach: Safari («Prevent cross-site tracking») and Firefox (standard protection with «Total Cookie Protection») isolate or block third-party cookies out of the box without you losing any logins. In Chrome, you can choose «Block third-party cookies» under «Privacy and security» > «Third-party cookies». Blocking all cookies completely, on the other hand, rarely makes sense: Apple warns that some websites then stop working and logins can fail.

Third-party cookies do not come from the website you are visiting but from embedded services, usually advertising networks. They are the main reason adverts follow you around the web.

For years Google had announced it would phase these cookies out of Chrome, and postponed the plan several times. In April 2025 Google announced it would keep its current approach and not show a separate prompt asking users to choose: third-party cookies remain allowed in Chrome by default, but you can block them in the settings under «Privacy and security». In Incognito mode they are already blocked by default.

Safari and Firefox take a different route: Safari prevents cross-site tracking out of the box, and Firefox's «Total Cookie Protection» in standard mode isolates each website's cookies in its own container, so trackers cannot recognise you across several websites. If you want similar protection in Chrome, you have to switch blocking on yourself.