Seconds of slow web page loading and you get to hear the advice ‘clear your cache to improve the speed.’ Such factors make it timeless advice that may have worked for you many times, but why do you encounter the same issue repeatedly?
That’s what you need to pay attention to.
Clearing cache memory is not rocket science. Many people may be concerned if it will remove their crucial data. But that’s merely a myth. It’s a quick and easy process of decluttering the unwanted information from your system and keeping enough free space available for further use. All it requires is a bit of knowledge and clever tricks to deal with cache issues.
But before that, let’s surf through the literal meaning of cache.
What is cache?
When you visit a website, you often see the brand or website logo in the top-left corner. Now, when you reload the page or visit the website’s subdomain or internal pages, the brand logo still remains at the same position.
This shows the brand logo continues to follow you, and it reloads each time you visit a new web page of the website. Now you may see this logo in a static position and consider it the same one you saw on the home page, but that’s not true. Every web page has the business logo, which reloads and reappears on the website.
As a result, the browser stores the computer memory brand logo, adding more to the cache memory. All such minor yet important factors build up and create cache. Other elements adding to the cache memory can be – a background image, downloaded file in different formats, etc.
All these things are stored locally so that cache does not act as the trouble-maker in your browser’s speed and performance. But unfortunately, it starts to act impossible when the cache memory overloads.
How clearing cache fixes everything?
Every now and then, a website stops working suddenly, and clearing cache fixes everything. Maybe that’s why it has become the easiest trick to manage all sorts of system speed issues for once. It removes all backend or reloaded files stored in the local space of the computer system. And if you think about how to get rid of it, all it takes is clearing cache and cookies on macOS or other system types. The process for both may vary, but the purpose remains the same.
Cookies and cache – Are they identical?
Now when talking about cache and cookies, most people consider them similar. But waking up to the realities of the tech world will make you understand the difference.
Cache – Is the files stored or downloaded directly from the websites or online platforms surfed. It contains elements like – fonts, background images, logos, infographics, etc.
Cookies – It’s when you enter queries or keep a lot of stuff in your online shopping buckets. This makes your browser remember your preferences and show results accordingly.
Freeing up the cache memory is no more a hassle –
The process of clearing cache memory on a system, macBook, or smartphone varies. When talking about the most widely used browser, Google Chrome, the process is different, but it’s easy to execute.
Using a shortcut –
When in a hurry, you can go for a shortcut to get rid of all cache memory making your computer functionalities slow. For this, all you need is to –
- Open the browser (Google Chrome)
- Click on “settings.”
- Now go to “Clear Browser Cache,” and you are done.
This may ask you to clean the cookies as well, but that’s your personalized preference.
The traditional approach –
- Press’ Ctrl, ‘Shift,’ and ‘Del’ to clear the cache instantly. Ensure that you have pressed all three of the keys together. Otherwise, these keys may take you to some other functionalities.
- When pressed correctly, these keys will take you to a new window displaying “clear browser cache.”
- Now, you can select an option from the dropdown menu asking for deleting cache memory of a specific time period. You can choose from – ‘last hour,’ ‘last week,’ ‘last four weeks’, and so on.
- If you wish to get rid of all cache data collected, click on ‘All,’ and you are done.
- Now check the box displayed next to the “Images and Files in Cache” option.
- Click on “Delete browser data” and submit the selection right away.
- Reload the web page and witness the difference.
The manual approach –
Those who do not believe in shortcuts or keyboard functionalities can try the manual process of clearing the data.
- Click on the ‘Menu’ option displayed in the upper right corner of the browser window. This will take you to the browser settings. If you find it challenging to figure out, you can recognize the three stacked dark dots settings.
- Next is to select the ‘more tools’ option.
- Now, click on ‘delete browser data.’
- And you are done!
Memory caching patterns –
The computer system uses different caching patterns to store and implement the data stored. Most data software engineers and scientists use it for researching data analysis of a customer or user.
Here, some common patterns used include –
Lazy loading – Most applications use the lazy loading technique that treats cache as the primary database system. When using it for a specific ID, the application begins to process the cache data first. If the data is missing, the cache memory will be responsible for extracting the data through the database.
Key-value caching – Most cache memory stored is based on key-value caching. This means you will ensure the data storage using a unique key. As it concerns in-memory processing, it is generally accessed by developers with good knowledge about caching layers. Some of the key-value caching storages are limited to data types that can be stored based on different versions.
The bottom line is that –
The cache memory may not sound like a significant hurdle, but that’s until you start witnessing several performance issues in your system. This is the reason why techies recommend cleaning the cache regularly. The more you keep yourself organized, the better performance results you will see.
