How to clear cache in Google Chrome

Asya Karapetyan
Asya Karapetyan
Copywriter and technical writer focused on macOS and user guidance.
August 4, 2023
Despite the fact that cache files generally help to speed up your web browsing, over time, these files take up significant disk space and may slow down your Mac. You should clear the browser cache in case you need to free up disk space on your computer. In this article, we will show you how to clear Google cache on Mac. Deleting Chrome cache

Contents:

  1. Should you clear cache?
  2. How to clear cache in Google Chrome manually
  3. The easy way to clear Google Chrome cache
  4. Frequently asked questions about Google cache

Video: How to clear Chrome cache

Should you clear cache on Mac?

CCache files are used to store rarely modified resources from sites and thus reduce the traffic and make the loading of web pages faster. Browser caches are temporary files on your computer (images, flash elements, sounds and so on) featured on the web page and can be located on your hard drive. In case you need to free up some disk space on your Mac, you can clear your browser cache files and other browser data on your computer. Also, clearing the browser cache will help to solve some issues with the downloading of web pages.
Read also: “How to uninstall Chrome Canary on Mac.“

How to delete Google Chrome caches in the browser:

We will show you two manual options how to clear cache and cookies and other browsing data of Chrome.

How to manually delete Google Chrome cache using the browser:

  1. Open the Chrome browser.
  2. In the menu bar, click Chrome and select Clear Browsing Data… from the drop-down menu. Alternatively, you can press the Ctrl+Shift+Delete keyboard shortcut or find this option in the browser settings (the three-dot icon in the upper right corner of the window).
    3. Chrome menu with Clear browser data option selected
  3. Switch to the Advanced tab.
  4. Select whatever Chrome temporary website data you want to delete. You can select browsing history, caches images and files, autofill form data, download history and other browsing data.
    5. Clearing browser data window
  5. Click Clear data.
This will clear cache in Chrome web browser. Note, that you can select a time range for clearing your browsing history. You have the following options:
  • last hour
  • last 24 hours
  • last seven days
  • last four weeks
  • all time

How to manually delete Google Chrome cache using the Mac Finder

Every browser has its own caching algorithm and stores the caches in its directory. If you are using a Mac, then the Chrome caches will be located in the hidden Library folder and the Google Chrome cache location will be the following ~/Library/Caches/Google/Chrome/. If for some reason, you cannot clear your browsing cache using the settings in Chrome, you can find and delete cache data right from the Library folder. 

Steps to clear your cache from macOS Library folder:

  1. Open Finder.
  2. Press the Command+Shift+G shortcut on your keyboard.
  3. Type ~/Library in the search field and press Enter.
    4. Go to Folder in Finder
  4. Go to the Caches → Google → Chrome and remove cache from there.
    5. Library folder showing Chrome cache files
  5. Then empty Trash to clear browser cache in Google Chrome entirely.
Note that you can use this method to clear cache in other browsers, like Firefox, Internet Explorer, Microsoft Edge, etc.
Read also: “How to clear DNS cache on Mac.“

The easy way to clear Google Chrome cache

Another easy way to clear the web cache or caches of any Mac application and the system is to use a free utility App Cleaner & Uninstaller. The utility was basically designed to uninstall apps completely, but it also allows you to clear caches of separate programs and even find the leftover files of the apps that have already been removed from your Mac.

Here is how to clear the cache of Google Chrome with App Cleaner & Uninstaller:

  1. Launch App Cleaner & Uninstaller.
  2. Locate and select Chrome in the list of apps.
  3. Switch on the Expert mode. You will see cache, cookies and other site data in the right panel.
  4. Select cache files.
  5. Click the Remove button.
    6. Clearing Chrome cache files with App Cleaner Uninstaller
  6. Confirm the removal of caches.
    7. Confirmation window to clear chrome cache on Mac
The main advantage of this option is that you can use App Cleaner & Uninstaller to find and remove cache files of any app on your Mac. Also, the app provides an option to reset applications on Mac, which means to set default settings for them.

Conclusion

We hope that our article has given the answers to all your questions about Google and Chrome cache. You now know the types of cache, how to view cached pages, how to clear Google Chrome cache. If you have any more questions, just write in the comments. We’ll be happy to assist you.

Frequently asked questions about Google cache

What is Google cache?

The Google cache is the server cache that is used to create temporary copies of web pages. In short, Google Cache is an archive copy of the web page stored on Google servers. Search engines keep a copy of each indexed page in case the original website is temporarily unavailable, or the content of the original page has been updated and some information is lost. Also, Google Cache is required to get access to websites blocked in your country as well as information when the web pages are loading slowly. It can even restore the content of non-working websites.

Almost every internet user may face a situation where a website is not currently available. Or, if you have your own website, it may happen that, while you are making some changes in the design, you suddenly realize that you inadvertently lost the text or that part of the site design has disappeared. Well, in both situations, server cached pages will help you to view the pages’ content and resolve the problem.

What is a Google cached page?

A Google cached page is a saved copy of a web page (HTML) and stored on servers. Each time the search engine visits a site for indexing, it saves the data of the site pages. They are called Google cached pages.

How to search for cached pages?

When you need to open any website which, for some reason, is not currently available, you can use the Google cache. You’ve probably noticed a small arrow button next to the web URL address when using the Google search engine. If you click on it, you will see a pop-up window with the Cached hyperlink. You can view the cached pages and a snapshot of the date they were made. google cache

How to view Google cached pages?

There is an easy way to see cached web pages – the older versions of each page. All you need do is to type the word “cache” before the URL address and click Enter. View the example. https://nektony.com/blog→ cache:nektony.com/blog You will then be redirected to the cached page through the Google cache URL address: https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:nektony.com/blog view cached pages

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