Android Clear Cache

You probably already know that clearing your cached & Application data can save you precious space on Android. There are many things you can do to clear up the internal storage of your Android device. Uninstalling apps, deleting files, moving apps and files to your microSD card, if you’ve got one, are all great places to start, and when things get really bad, you can always perform a full system reset.

Before you go so far as to wiping your entire device, there is something else you might try, clearing your system cache. As of Jelly Bean 4.2 and up, however, you can finally clear all cached data at once. In 4.2 and up, you’ll see a new item called "Cached data". Tapping this will give you the option to erase everything.

Before Get Started

We do not require anything special, clearing system cache can be done right from your Android operating system. As always, you’ll find that we are working on a vanilla Android device, your device may have slightly different steps, but it should offer the same functionality.

Why should you clear your system cache

Let us start with a basic understanding of what your system cache is exactly, and why you might not want to clear it. Cache files on an Android device are a collection of all of the images, videos, text files and more that are required to display things like web pages, advertisements and more.

A “cache” is a temporary place where developers store data of a particular website or App. When you will access that specific website or app again the data from the cache files are used to load the pages instead of downloading it again – because going to the network is slow and expensive. The main purpose of caches is to improve things like browsing experience by boosting the page loading speed.

For the apps and web pages that you frequent, cache is a wonderful tool. But what about all those images for those web pages that you will never visit again, social media posts that you’ve already read or files for apps that you’ve uninstalled? They take up valuable space on your device, and it’s probably a good idea to make them go away.

Android Clear System Cache

Don’t forget, clearing system cache is easy. We’ll start out by heading into your main system Settings.

  • Choose Storage.
  • Choose Cached data.
  • In the popup confirmation box, choose OK.
  • That is all there is to it.

As you might imagine, this cleared all cache on your device, so the next time you start up your apps and websites they may take an extra little bit to reload the elements into cache again. This is OK, just remember to come back here again as frequently as needed to clear things up again.

If clearing cache for everything on your device is too invasive for your needs, Android offers a method to clear cache on an app-by-app basis.

Android Clear App Cache

In your main system Settings, tap on Apps.

  • Tap on each app that you wish to clear cache.
  • Tap on the Clear Cache button.

It can be very time consuming to go through your entire list of apps, clearing cache for each as you go, but if it is worth the hassle for you, it is great that the option exists.

Clear Cache on Chrome for Android

Clearing browser cache isn’t much of a hassle, by following these simple steps you should be able to clear browser cache easily. Open Chrome and tap on the menu at the top right side of the screen (its the three vertical dots).

In the menu you will see the option of Settings, just tap on it. In settings, tap on Privacy under the heading Advanced. At the bottom of the screen (no need to scroll down) you will see another option for Menu (It will be 3 vertical dots as well) just tap and in that menu tap on Clear Browsing Data.

In the next menu, check Clear the cache option and may be other options too if you would like to clear them as well. Otherwise, just check Clear the cache option and hit “Clear”. All your browser cache will be cleared and you can start fresh again.

Clear Cache on Firefox for Android

To clear cache on Firefox for Android, open the browser and tap on the Menu located at the top right corner of the screen. In the menu you will see the option of Settings, tap on it and in the next menu tap on Privacy.

There you will see the option of Clear now and when you will tap on it you will see a list of things that you can clear. Just check “Cache” and maybe other options too if you would like to remove them as well and hit Clear data. All selected data will be removed completely.

You also have the option to automate the process by automatically removing all the cache when you will exit the browser. To clear cache automatically, tap on Clear on exit in the Privacy menu. From the next menu, choose cache and other data options which you would like to clear upon exiting the browser. After choosing your options just tap on Set and all the chosen data will be removed whenever you will exit Firefox browser.