Why Should I Clear My Cache?
If you’re dealing with glitchy websites, slow apps or out of space on your device, one of the first things tech support might tell you to do is clear your cache. But what does that mean exactly? And how often should you do it? This article will help you understand the basics of caching and why and when you should clear your cache.
A cache is a memory bank that saves files and data from being retrieved from a slower form of storage, such as RAM or disk. It’s designed to improve the speed of an app or website by storing a local copy of a file, allowing it to be quickly reloaded when needed. A web browser or mobile app might store cached files in the browser’s local memory, on a hard disk drive or in another location on a device.
Caching files can be helpful, especially when you visit the same websites frequently. The local copies saved in your cache will load much faster than if you were to retrieve the same files from the internet, since the download wouldn’t have to happen again. Eventually, though, the files can grow too large and start taking up valuable space on your device. In addition, a corrupted file in the cache may cause an app to display incorrectly or crash.
Clearing the cache will erase all of these files and force your device to re-download them from the internet. This can take a few seconds to a few minutes, depending on how much data you’ve stored in your cache.
You might also notice that some sites are displaying slightly different than they should be if the version you have stored in your cache is outdated. This can be frustrating, particularly if you’ve made changes to your website and are not seeing them reflected in the live version on your device. Clearing your cache will fix this problem and ensure that you’re always looking at the latest version of a site.
It’s important to remember that clearing your cache will eliminate all the information it’s gathered over time. This includes login information for websites, saved shopping carts and other personalized settings. This can make re-logging into sites or retrieving information from them take a little longer, but it will help you avoid any problems that could have been caused by an out of date or corrupted file in your cache.
If you have any questions or concerns about your cache, please feel free to reach out to the Gemini team – we’re always happy to help!
