Clearing Cache, Cookies and History in Mozilla Firefox - A short tutorial

Are your Web pages not refreshing? Are you having difficulty accessing a certain site? As a first attempt to troubleshoot these problems, try clearing your Cache. See below for instructions.

What is Cache?
The Cache folder contains all the files (text and images) of web sites you visit. Every word, icon, photo, etc. of the pages you visit are stored in this folder. Depending on your surfing habits, it can build up quickly. Cache should be deleted periodically to improve browsing performance.

What are Cookies?
A cookie is a file created by a web site that stores information on your computer, such as your preferences when visiting that site. By default, cookies are enabled. They are required to access certain sites (i.e., bank and credit unions).

What is History?
The History folder contains a list of every site visited during a certain time period. The default time period is 9 days.

How do I clear the history, cookies and/or cache, using Firefox?

1. Select Tools from the top menu, and Options from the drop down list.



Click the Privacy button in the left menu.


To clear the list of sites that you have visited, select History and then click the Clear button.


To clear your cookies, select Cookies from the Privacy list, and then click the Clear button.



To clear your cache, select Cache from the Privacy list, and then click the Clear button



Click Ok to return to Firefox.