PC tips and tricks

How To Clean Or Clear Cache Of Firefox Web Browser On Your PC

Hi,

This post tells you the procedure to clear off your computer’s Firefox web browser cache. There are different versions of Firefox web browser and I am going to cover the way for clearing the cache for Firefox 3.0.7. The reason being that my Dell Vostro 400 desktop has Firefox 3.0.7. However, if you have other Firefox web browser version, locating Cache and clearing it is all that is required! It’s easy.

Now what’s a browser cache and why should you clean or clear it?

The browser cache is a storage area in form of a folder on your PC for storing web site files (images and pages of the sites visited by you). The size of the web browser cache is typically few megabytes and  can be changed by you.

The web browser cache stores the most recent web pages visited by the surfer. It means that if your web browser cache has the capability to store 10 pages (just an example, it will depend on the cache space allocated for browser on your computer hard disk), and if you visit 50 web pages, only the latest 10 web pages will be stored in your browser cache.

The purpose of web browser cache – web files storage area, is to have local copy of the web pages visited by you on to you PC hard disk (subject to amount of hard disk space allocation as cache).

So,  when you visit the same web pages again via same browser, the content is taken from your computer browser local cache folder instead of downloading the content from the online sites. This results in saving of bandwidth and increase in surfing speed as less data to be downloaded due to its availability locally on your PC. I hope that I am making sense as usual in this post so far

Personally, I would clear browser cache due to the following reasons: 1. Broken web pages display.

If I surfed a site after clearing my browser cache and the site was having problem (due to some or other reason) then the browser will store the broken pages and will continue to display the same until the browser cache is cleared and the web page is refreshed.

2. Creating space on computer hard disk

The amount of web browser cache space if set very large, and not cleared for many days, can occupy huge amount of disk space. Thus, if I fall short of disk space, I would definitely clear off my computer web browser cache, in this case, Firefox browser – 3.0.7.

Here is the procedure to finally clear off your Firefox web browser (version 3.0.7) cache:

1. Launch Firefox Web Browser (If it is not opened)

2. Click on Tools and then on Clear Private Data (shown next):

3. In Clear Private Data window that appears now, make sure that the Cache box is checked.

4. Click on Clear Private Data Now

5. Refresh Firefox Web browser by clicking on “Reload current page” icon (circular arrow) as shown below:  Or, as you have cleared your Firefox browser cache, just press Enter after clicking at the end of the URL in the address bar. If there are no issues – with your’s ISP and the site that you are visiting, you should now see the most recent and working page of the site that probably was displaying problematic page from the old page stored in your web browser cache.

I hope that this post helps some of the surfers to clear their Firefox browser cache and see the recent web page for the site’s URL in their Firefox browser.

It was a basic tip but yet an important one. Sometimes, I have seen people struggling to get a proper view of a site as they simply keep on refreshing their browser again and again and seeing the same  problematic broken web page; the issue being with their PC local browser cache. Clearing the browser cache and then refreshing the browser again have served their browser a proper working web page.

You can also clear Firefox 3.0.7 cache by

a). Pressing down Ctrl+Shift+Delete (hold these three keys in the given sequence), releasing these three keys when the browser window titled “Clear Private Data” browser appears.

b). Clicking on “Clear Private Data Now” (By default Cache is checked in the Clear Private Data window).

Let me know your comments about this post. Did it help you in any way?

Rajesh

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Posted in: Application SW, Internet Browser

Tags: broken web pages in Firefox, cleaning Firefox web browser cache, clearing Mozilla Firefox cache, incomplete web pages display in Firefox, old content being displayed in Firefox

This entry was posted on Friday, May 22nd, 2009 at 12:25 am and is filed under Application SW, Internet Browser. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.