Whether you have an older iPhone or last year’s iPhone 15 Pro Max, your device is likely to slow down a little as you use it, especially when using the web browser.
This doesn’t just apply to iPhones; virtually any device with a web browser, including desktops, laptops, and tablets, can suffer from this. Let’s discuss the why and how and then discuss how to quickly fix it. Sometimes, it can make a big difference in your device's performance.
First, let’s get this out of the way—how do you pronounce the word cache?
Is it cash, like the stuff in your wallet, or is it pronounced cash-shay, sort of like sashay, the square dancing move?
We asked around, and our favorite typed response from a tech was the following:
“It’s pronounced cache.”
Thanks for clearing that up!
(Hint: according to the dictionary, it’s actually pronounced cash)
Anyway, what the heck is it?
Cache is extra data that a program might store to work faster. It’s sort of like sticking a slip of paper in the different sections of a recipe book so you can flip back and forth to them faster, except with cache, it actually makes a copy of some of the data it might need and keeps it.
Of course, once your recipe book has two dozen bookmarks, it becomes cluttered and harder to find everything again. That’s what happens after a long time with cache, too. Your cache could start getting so big that it really doesn’t help speed things up and instead just takes up precious storage space.
Website cookies are often in the same category as cache, but cookies store very specific user data, as opposed to data from the website you are visiting. Cookies tell the browser that you previously logged in and, depending on the site, keep you logged in. Clearing out your cookies can often give you a fresh start and sometimes speed things up, but keep in mind that clearing your cookies will log you out of most sites and reset many of your preferences for sites you visit often.
Let’s break down the next sections based on the phone type and the various popular web browsers you might be using:
Most iPhone users probably use Safari, Apple’s now-proprietary and default browser on iPhones and iPads. If you have iOS11 or later, keep in mind that clearing your Safari cache will affect every device signed into your iCloud account. This will log you out of everything, and you’ll need to sign back into your accounts.
If you use Google Chrome as your default browser on iOS, you can clear your browser cache through Google Chrome.
Android is a suburb OS for smartphones and tablets, but because every device manufacturer and carrier can customize the operating system, the default browser might be different depending on what device you have. For instance, Google Pixel phones use Chrome as the default browser, while Samsung devices have an Internet app. Most Samsung owners tend to make Chrome their default browser eventually, but let’s cover our bases just in case:
If you have a Samsung device and you use the stock Internet browser, simply called Internet, then here’s how you clear the cache:
Most Android users are probably using Google Chrome as their default browser. Here’s how you clear your cache.
Hope this helps!
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