Student Guides and Documentation

Clearing a Web Browser's Cookies, History, and Cache (Chrome)

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Web browsers use a small portion of your local computer's storage to save page elements of visited sites in your web browser's history.  This behavior helps your web browser to load pages more efficiently, but sometimes browsers may pull up cached pages, and not the most recent version of the page. Clearing this information can also help improve your web browser's performance.

Clearing Cookies, History, and Cache in Google Chrome (Windows)

Image of a browser window in Google Chrome with the following annotations: 1.Click on the Customize and Control Google Chrome button (the button with the three horizontal lines).2.Select History from the menu that appears.

To clear the cache, cookies, and history in Google Chrome:

  1. Click on the Customize and Control Google Chrome button (the button with the three horizontal lines).
  2. Select History from the menu that appears.

Clearing History, Part 2

Image of the History options screen with the clear browsing data button outlined with a red circle.

On the next screen, click the Clear browsing data button.

Clearing History, Part 3

Image of the Clear Browsing Data button with the following annotations: 1.Obliterate items from: Select the option labeled From the Beginning of Time from the dropdown menu.2.From the list of checkboxes, leave the items checked by default.3.Click the Clear Browsing Data button to clear the history, cookies, and cache.

You will now see a screen labeled Clear Browsing Data.

  1. Obliterate items from: Select the option labeled From the Beginning of Time from the dropdown menu.
  2. From the list of checkboxes, leave the items checked by default.
  3. Click the Clear Browsing Data button to clear the history, cookies, and cache.

Clearing Cookies, History, and Cache in Google Chrome (Mac)

Image of a browser window in Google Chrome with the following annotations: 1.Click on the Customize and Control Google Chrome button (the button with the three horizontal lines).2.Select History from the menu that appears.

To clear the cache, cookies, and history in Google Chrome:

  1. Click on the Customize and Control Google Chrome button (the button with the three horizontal lines).
  2. Select History from the menu that appears.

Clearing History, Part 2

Image of the History options screen with the clear browsing data button outlined with a red circle.

On the next screen, click the Clear browsing data button.

Clearing History, Part 3

Image of the Clear Browsing Data button with the following annotations: 1.Obliterate items from: Select the option labeled From the Beginning of Time from the dropdown menu.2.From the list of checkboxes, leave the items checked by default.3.Click the Clear Browsing Data button to clear the history, cookies, and cache.

You will now see a screen labeled Clear Browsing Data.

  1. Obliterate the following items from: Select the option labeled From the Beginning of Time from the dropdown menu.
  2. From the list of checkboxes, leave the items checked by default.
  3. Click the Clear Browsing Data button to clear the history, cookies, and cache.
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