How to Clear Cache in WordPress (Ultimate Guideline)

Allowing WordPress caching makes your WordPress site perform faster. As a result, most websites allow it to provide the best experience for visitors.

Considering the different technical situations, you may also need to clear your WordPress cache. This guide will show you how to clear cache in WordPress.

Why should I clear WordPress cache files?

Some events (plugin/theme updates, design updates, database changes, image changes, adding new pages/posts, etc.) require clearing the WordPress site cache to make the changes visible.

If the old cache files reside, your site will continue to show the old files to visitors even after you make the changes.

Difference between WordPress server caching and browser caching

Both browser caching and WordPress server caching perform the same task, saving data for faster loading of web pages.

Browser caching: Browser caching saves data from the websites you visit so that it can be loaded faster on subsequent visits. Browsers use your computer’s hard drive as storage for these cache files.

Different browsers have different cache management configurations and settings. However, in each browser, they all serve the same purpose, loading websites faster. However, the caching performance of the same website may vary from browser to browser.

WordPress server caching: Every time someone visits your site, the site connects to the database and outputs files. But this repeatedly takes time and puts a lot of pressure on the server.

Your website creates a static version of your web files and serves the same files to all visitors over and over again, thus reducing the database load. These static files are cached by your WordPress server. To a large extent, the hosting provider manages them.

However, WordPress server caching is important because you can also access, manage or clear the cache using WordPress plugins.

How to clear your browser cache

If you are unable to see changes to the site or page you are on (for example, after submitting a form), your browser cache may not have acquired a new cache. In this case, clearing the old cache is the main move to solve this problem.

Clear cache in Google Chrome

Open Settings in Chrome and scroll down to the Privacy and Security section. Then, select the Clear Browsing Data option. Set the parameters and click Clear Data . Make sure to select the appropriate time range in the time range bar.

Chrome also provides you with advanced ways to clear cookies and cache in Chrome.

Clear cache in Firefox

Open the options in the Firefox sidebar and navigate to Privacy & Security . Select Clear Data to delete all cached data. You can use Management Data to check cache files and delete selected files.

Clear Cache in Safari

Open Preferences, click Advanced, and select the Show Development menu in the menu bar. Click the Development tab on the Safari menu and find the Empty Cache option there. Similarly, you can also clear the system cache on your Mac.

Clear cache with WordPress caching plugin

Server-side caching is essential and it has a different process from other types of WordPress caching as it contains PHP caching, object caching, MySQL caching, etc. Since the server is the source of the website data and files, server-side caching is much more efficient.

Clear WordPress cache using WP Super Cache plugin

WP Super Cache provides an advanced cache management system with automatic cache compression and cache scheduling. Similarly, you can clear and manage your website cache using WP Super Cache by following a few steps.

1. Go to the WP Super Cache settings panel of WordPress.
2. Click Delete Cache to clear your site cache.
3. Inside the content, you can also find a list of regular caches and expired caches.

Clear WordPress Cache using W3 Total Cache Plugin

W3 Total Cache is a premium WordPress caching plugin that serves millions of users. If you use this plugin, here’s how to clear your cache.

1. Navigate to Dashboard > Performance > Dashboard.
2. Using the empty All Cache button in the Dashboard, you can clear all your site cache.
3. If you want to adjust the following configurations: Page Cache, Database Cache, Browser Cache, or Object Cache, find them in the W3 Total Cache dashboard below and customize them accordingly.

Clear WordPress caching with WP fastest cache

WP Fastest Cache is one of the most used and fastest WordPress cache optimization plugins. You can clear your WordPress cache by following these instructions.

There are two options: Clear all cache and Delete cache and shrink CSS/JS to take the necessary action to clear WordPress cache.

Note: Be careful to clean up CSS/JS that may contain your base site files.

Clear WordPress server cache through hosting

Since most websites are now hosted using the cloud, you have less control over the server. However, some hosting companies offer the service of clearing cache from the control panel.

Here, we will discuss how some hosting companies allow users to clear WordPress server cache.

Siteground: This hosting company allows users to activate flash caching from their hosting control panel.

Kinsta : Kinsta has its caching plugin for users to clear WordPress cache.

Other reputable hosting providers usually implement cache clearing options in the cPanel or rely on advanced WordPress caching plugins.

Clear cache with wp – cli

You can also clear the cache from the WordPress command line interface (called wp – cli), which is a text interface that communicates with your computer.

You can clear cache by following these commands.

Log in to WordPress using SSH .

Find wp – config , a public _ html file, in the WP directory.

Add this code here.

[master_rvjfwygaxt] : public_html$ wp cache flush
Success: The cache was flushed.
[master_rvjfwygaxt] : public_html$

How often should you clear your cache?

To be honest, caches are very useful for both servers and browsers. They help users have a fast and pleasant browsing experience.

However, sometimes, if the cache storage is overcrowded, the cache files can become corrupted, which can cause several problems in the browser and on the server. Therefore, it is wise to clear the cache weekly, although there is no standard schedule.

However, if you have updated any files or pages on your site, you should clear the WordPress cache files or manage them immediately.

The beauty of WordPress is that there is always something new to learn. From search engine optimization to blogging tips, learn some new ways to improve your website or blog.