Web Browser Troubleshooting
Why Clear Cache and Cookies?
Clearing Cache and Cookies is the first step for troubleshooting internet browsing issues. Doing this is a way to confirm whether or not any issues are a website error or simply an inconsistency caused by using different browsers.
Google Chrome
- Click the Tools menu (three dotted lines in the upper-right corner)
- Select History.
- Select Clear Browsing Data from the left-hand side.
- Check-mark Cookies and other site data and Cached images and files. Select Clear Data.
- Close your browser (or quit the program if you're on Mac) for changes to take affect.
Mozilla Firefox
- Click on your tools bar
- Click on preferences (On PC, it's called options)
- On the menu to the right, select "privacy" Under the history option, there is a shortcut titled "clear your recent history" - click that Select only the top four options and hit clear now Note: you can deselect the top two options if you don't want to clear browsing, download and search history.
- Close out of your browser (PC) or quit the application (Mac) for changes to take effect
Safari for macOS
Note: Safari is a Apple-only web browser.
- Click on Safari in the top left corner of the finer bar
- Click Preferences
- Click the Privacy tab
- Click Manage Website Data...
- Click Remove All
- Click Remove Now
- Quit Safari (don't just close it) and reopen for your changes to take place.
Internet Explorer for Windows
Note: Internet Explorer is a Windows-only web browser.
- Click on the Settings menu in the upper-right corner
- Click Internet options Under the General tab on the upper-left hand side, scroll down to Browsing history.
- Select Check the "Temporary Internet files and website files," "Cookies and website data," "History," and "Download History" boxes
- Click Delete
- Close out of Internet Explorer and reopen it for changes to take affect.
Microsoft Edge for Windows 10
Note: Microsoft Edge is a Windows-only web browser.
- Click the Tools menu (three dotted lines in the upper-right corner)
- Then Settings
- Scroll down until you see "Browsing data"
- Click Choose what to clear Select the top four boxes
- Click clear
- Close out of Microsoft Edge completely for changes to take affect
Safari for iOS
- Go to Settings
- Scroll down to the option for Safari
- Scroll down and select Clear Cookies and Data
- A pop-up will come up verifying that you want to clear the Cookies and Data. Select Clear.
- The button for Clear Cookies and Data should turn gray.
Google Chrome for iOS
- Open Google Chrome on your iOS.
- Click on the menu toolbar in the top right corner.
- Select settings.
- Under advanced, select privacy.
- Select Clear Browsing Data.
- Select the top three options - browsing history, cookies and site data, and cached images and files.
- Once you've chosen the settings you want to clear, select Clear Browsing Data in red.