How to clear the cache and cookies from your Android phone

This tutorial will guide you through the steps required to clear the cache and cookies from the browser that comes with your Android-based phone.

Please note: the steps outlined in this guide are for the built-in, default web browser that comes with your Android phone – Chrome. If you’re using a 3rd party browser that you downloaded from the Google Play Store (such as Opera or Firefox) – these steps won’t clear the cache and cookies from those browsers – just the default one.

1. Open the browser as you normally would.
2. Tap the 3 dots button located in the upper-right corner of the screen.
3. Select Settings from the drop-down menu.
4. From the list of Settings scroll down and select Privacy
5. In the Privacy section tap the Clear browsing data link.
6. Now you’ll need to decide the timeframe of the cookies and cache you want to clear. The default is All time which means you’ll be deleting all of the cookies and cache files. If you want to choose a different period, select the menu next to All time
7. Choose one of the predefined timeframes.
8. Next you’ll need to decide exactly what you want to delete. The choices are Browsing history – which is the list of sites that you’ve visited. You can also clear the Cookies and site data which means you’ll need to sign in again to most of the sites on your phone. The other choice is Cached images and files which are the parts of web pages that your browser stores so it doesn’t need to download them again the next time you visit a given site. Place check marks next each of the items that you want to delete and then tap the Clear data button.
9. In all likelihood you’ll be presented with a message letting you know it was all cleared as you requested. Tap OK, got it

10. That’s it – you’ve managed to successfully clear the history, cache and cookies on Android.

If you need help clearing the cache, cookies and/or history from another browser, we have a guide for that too.