How to clear your cache

Introduction

Clearing your browser's cache is a useful preliminary troubleshooting step when you have an issue loading, seeing content, or performing a task on a web page. 

Instructions

What is a web browser cache?

Any website you visit is actually a collection of data and code, typically stored in hundreds or thousands of files. In order to improve performance, web browsers will download many of these files and stored them in a cache on your device, referred to as the browser cache, because your browser can display the files stored on the device's local cache much faster than it can pull fresh files from the site. 

The next time you visit a particular site, the browser will compare its browser cache with the files on the web server, and it will only download what has changed since the last time it visited the site.

Why should I clear the web browser cache?

When a vendor or web developer updates a website, the site's files are updated. These updates are typically to provide updated content to users, but can also be patches or upgrades, which are used most commonly to resolve issues, improve security, or implement new features and functions. When the a website is updated, the files stored locally in your device’s browser cache may not be compatible with the files on the website, and the browser may not update the locally cached files with the updated files from the website. This can cause a user to experience an error or be unable to perform a function. Clearing your device’s web browser cache deletes all of the locally cached files, and forces the web browser to download fresh copies of data and code from the site.

Clearing the web browser cache is the first troubleshooting step to eliminate errors from a website, or improve performance of a poorly performing website. 

How do I clear my web browser's cache?

Instructions to clear the cache for most widely used browsers are provided below for your reference: 

• macOS Safari
• iOS Safari
• Firefox (any OS)
• Chrome (any OS)
• Microsoft Edge (any OS)

Notes

1. Ellucian recommends the following when accessing any Colleague or Ellucian user interface in a browser, including Self-Service, UI6, Experience or CRM Advise:
   1. Google Chrome in Incognito mode provides the best user experience.
   2. We strongly advise users to clear their browser's cache before accessing any Ellucian or Colleague application after Ellucian has installed patches and upgrades. 
2. Microsoft no longer supports any version of Internet Explorer - please use Google Chrome, Firefox, Safari (macOS or iOS only), or Microsoft Edge.