How to Clear Your Cache in WordPress

As a website owner or developer, you know how important it is to optimize your website for performance.

One of the best ways to improve website speed is to use caching.

However, caching can sometimes cause issues, such as outdated content or changes not appearing on your website.

In such cases, you need to clear your cache.

In this guide, we’ll show you how to clear your cache in WordPress.

What is Cache?

Cache is a temporary storage location that stores frequently accessed data.

In the context of web development, caching stores website data, such as images, JavaScript, and CSS files, in the user’s browser or server.

When a user revisits the website, the browser retrieves the data from the cache instead of downloading it from the server, thus reducing the loading time of the website.

However, when updates are made to a website, the old cached data may still be stored in the user’s browser, causing issues such as outdated content or broken functionality.

To resolve these issues, it’s important to clear your cache.

Clearing Cache in WordPress

There are several ways to clear your cache in WordPress, and we’ll cover some of the most popular ones in this guide.

Clear Browser Cache

The first step is to clear your browser cache. This is the simplest and quickest way to clear your cache, and it only takes a few clicks.

  • Google Chrome: Open the Chrome browser and click on the three vertical dots in the upper-right corner. Select “More Tools” and then “Clear browsing data”. From here, select the time range and the type of data you want to clear, then click “Clear data”.
  • Mozilla Firefox: Open the Firefox browser and click on the three horizontal lines in the upper-right corner. Select “Library” and then “History”. From here, select “Clear Recent History”, choose the time range and the type of data you want to clear, then click “Clear Now”.
  • Safari: Open the Safari browser and click on “Safari” in the upper-left corner. Select “Clear History” and choose the time range you want to clear, then click “Clear History”.

Clear Cache in WordPress via a Plugin

There are several caching plugins available for WordPress, and many of them have a feature to clear the cache.

If you’re using a caching plugin, you can simply go to the plugin settings and look for the option to clear the cache.

Here are the steps to clear cache in two popular caching plugins:

Clear Cache with WP Rocket

WP Rocket is a popular caching plugin that includes a feature to clear the cache.

Here’s how to do it:

  • Go to the WP Rocket settings in your WordPress dashboard.
  • Click on the “Dashboard” tab.
  • Click on the “Clear Cache” button.

That’s it! Your cache has been cleared.

Clear Cache with W3 Total Cache

W3 Total Cache is another popular caching plugin that includes a feature to clear the cache.

Here’s how to do it:

  • Go to the W3 Total Cache settings in your WordPress dashboard.
  • Click on the “Performance” tab.
  • Click on the “Empty All Caches” button.

That’s it! Your cache has been cleared.

Clear Cache via FTP

If you don’t have a caching plugin installed or if your caching plugin doesn’t have a feature to clear the cache, you can manually clear the cache via FTP.

Here are the steps to clear cache via FTP:

  • Connect to your website via FTP using an FTP client.
  • Navigate to the “wp-content” folder.
  • Find the “cache” folder and delete it.

That’s it! Your cache has been cleared.