We all use the Internet. Whether we realise it or not the Internet has become such an integral part of our day to day lives. Most of us use computers (PC’s, laptops, tablets, smart phones) to look at information stored on web pages, this is called browsing or surfing the Internet and one of the “tricks” that computers use to try to speed up this process is a copy of the information you download on your computer, when you go to a website, on your computer. This is called cache (it’s pronounced “cash”).
So, when for example, you visit the BBC’s news website to read about what’s going on in the world you will download their logo, some menu items and the news stories of the day. If you return to that page at a later date some of the information will not have changed – the logo and the menu, for example, are likely to be the same from day to day where the news stories may change several times throughout the day. Your computer’s web browser will “talk” to the website and determine what infromation is new and needs to be downloaded and what information hasn’t changed and doesn’t need to be downloaded. By not downloading duplicate infromation your browser saves you time and potentially money if you are using a mobile network for Internet, giving you a faster and therefore better browsing experience.
From time to time things get messed up (as is always the case with computers, eh?) and your cache is not refreshing properly so the information that you see on the web page is incorrect. There could be a number of reasons for this from the time/date on your computer being out of sync to problems on either your computer or the website providers server – either way the first thing to do is to clear your cache to see if this fixes your problem. Clearing your cache can be done in a couple of ways, the first and easiest way is to simply force a refresh of the webpage with the problem. This can be done on a Windows computer by holding down the CTRL key and pressing the F5 key (if you have an Apple computer then hold down the Apple key or the Command key and press R).
If your problem is not fixed by forcing a reload of the webpage then you can proceed to manually clearing the cache on your browser. The instructions for this are specific to the browser that you’re using so you need to know the name of your browser. It could be Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari or some other browser. Usually the shape and colour of the icon that you click on will give it away – you can see a list of some of the most common browsers in the link below. Identify your browser, click on the appropriate icon and this helpful website will give you instructions on how you can clear you cache for your particular browser…