How to Change the Google Chrome Cache Location

In this tutorial we’ll show you how to easily change the default save location for the cache in Google Chrome.

Web browsers save their caches at predetermined locations by default, which can usually be changed quite easily from within the browsers’s Options. However, in Google Chrome, there is no visible option to change the location of the cache. This doesn’t, however, mean that it can’t be done.

Using Microsoft Windows 7, the default save location of Google Chrome’s cache is:

C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Cache

Here’s how to change it by adding just a few parameters to the Google Chrome shortcut.

1. Locate a Chrome shortcut (Desktop, Start Menu, Taskbar etc.), right-click it and select Properties.
2. In the Target field append the following to the already present string:

   --disk-cache-dir="d:\cache" --disk-cache-size=104857600

   Replace the text in red to any directory you would make the new cache directory. Click OK to exit.

Now Chrome needs to be configured to use the newly defined cache folder for opening previously visited links in the history. For this,

1. Type regedit in the Run command and click OK.
2. Navigate to the following registry key:

   HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\ChromeHTML\shell\open\command

3. In the right hand pane, the location of the EXE of Chrome would be given. Right-click the entry and click on Modify.
4. Append the following to the already written value of the registry key after the chrome.exe” part

   --disk-cache-dir="d:\cache" --disk-cache-size=104857600

   Note that the red directory location in this step should be identical to the one you specified in step #2 in the first section, otherwise Chrome will not be able to load pages from the newly set cache.

   The registry key value should now look something like this:

   "C:\Users\Martin\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe" --disk-cache-dir="d:\cache" --disk-cache-size=104857600 -- "%1"

   Click OK and exit the Registry Editor.

5. Chrome will now be configured to save cache at a new location and also retrieve previously loaded web pages from the new cache location as well. Restart Chrome and for the changes to take effect.

Be sure to check out the rest of our Google Chrome tips, tricks and tutorials.