Why Won't The Clear Cache Button Work?
Since the newest update, it is impossible to simply clear the cache, from the browser. When I click on the "Clear Now" button, it only reduces it by 1 or 1 megs at a time! Well, if I have 550 to clear, am I supposed to sit here all day, to do what used to take five seconds?
All Replies (16)
Best is to press the F5 key to reload the about:preferences#advanced Network tab to see if the count changes. The clearing of the cache is done in the background in a separate thread.
the-edmeister said
What do you have as the Time range to clear: ? It defaults to Last hour, so if you want to clear more you need to select one of the other 4 options.
It's not that it's not clearing enough, it's that it takes forever to clear it! I have sometimes up to 500 mbs of cache, which used to be able to be cleared within seconds, now it minutes, as I click & click & click and click, it's absurd, and I don't see why they can't just make it work again, as it had been for years.
Plus the-edmeister, I see no preference setting for "time range to clear", and I doubt it defaults only to the last hour, as that would mean I'd have gigs of cache sitting around, which I don't...
Hi StevenCee, "time range to clear" is in a different dialog, Clear Recent History, not on the Preferences page.
Since cache is being cleared in the background to avoid blocking the user interface, the speed of clearance varies and yours seems to be repeatably slow. It might be useful if you could gather a little data. After clicking the button, could you refresh the Preferences page at 10 second intervals (Cmd+r) and note down the cache size progress to see where it stops or stalls out? When it seems faster or slower, do you notice any difference in what other things Firefox is doing at the time, for example, a download, playing streaming media, etc.
jscher2000: how was your weekend?
I just cleared a small amount, but I counted to ten before refreshing the page and it jumped way down to 40kb the first time. Mr Cee and I seem to be the only ones interested enough to have this discussion - but I clear cache constantly, as pages are often very slow loading (eg: Amazon) and changes are noticeable. To the person who thought things would work themselves out in the next couple of versions, we still have to wait.
I think Firefox has gotten away from some of the things that made it so great, and these changes that we don't like - in addition to some other issues of late (the past several years) - are something to which we either agree to accept and adapt or move on. I'm not giving up, yet, but I tell you, FF can be a real headache sometimes.
I know you say to go to Prefs and do this, but I clear a couple or a few times a day (Options > Advanced), so opening another tab, let alone counting to ten is too much time to spend as it is.
Since 46.0.1, I cannot get lower than 4kb - ever. I know it's small, but the fact is that cache is no longer emptying at zero.
(I keep my cache much lower than recommended [+300], because of the slowness I experience on websites. Clearing cache, BTW, doesn't seem to do anything except make me feel like I've done something. This is strange - so my explanation about FF evolution works as an explanation for me. Also, some websites have mixed media and the designs are so bad - per HTTPS Everywhere - that browsing issues are inevitable.)
Thank you.
Hi CiaoBella1, slowness often is due to extraneous content that sites are instructing Firefox to load. Have you tried using any ad blocking extensions? However, those might not help on Amazon.
Do you have any security software that might interfere with clearing the disk cache?
You can also try to delete the entire disk cache space on the hard drive. You can find the location on the about:cache page.
- ~/Library/Caches/Firefox/Profiles/
In Mac OS X v10.7 and later, the ~/Library folder is a hidden folder.
jscher2000 said
Hi StevenCee, "time range to clear" is in a different dialog, Clear Recent History, not on the Preferences page. Since cache is being cleared in the background to avoid blocking the user interface, the speed of clearance varies and yours seems to be repeatably slow. It might be useful if you could gather a little data. After clicking the button, could you refresh the Preferences page at 10 second intervals (Cmd+r) and note down the cache size progress to see where it stops or stalls out? When it seems faster or slower, do you notice any difference in what other things Firefox is doing at the time, for example, a download, playing streaming media, etc.
I've done it dozens of times, and there's no rhyme or reason why it sometimes jumps 50 or 100 mbs at a time, or 1, 2, or 3, which is exasperatingly frustrating! I just don't get it, it's worked fine for years & years, then only now does it do this, and I've not added any adblock or security software...
cor-el said
Do you have any security software that might interfere with clearing the disk cache? You can also try to delete the entire disk cache space on the hard drive. You can find the location on the about:cache page.In Mac OS X v10.7 and later, the ~/Library folder is a hidden folder.
- ~/Library/Caches/Firefox/Profiles/
I've deleted it manually, or via other utilities (Onyx/Cocktail), but that's a lot more of a hassle, than just doing what I've been doing for years, which is just use the Advanced Preferences & Clear Cache...
StevenCee said
I've done it dozens of times, and there's no rhyme or reason why it sometimes jumps 50 or 100 mbs at a time, or 1, 2, or 3, which is exasperatingly frustrating!
You've done what dozens of times?
I'm suggesting a very specific study of clicking the Clear button only once and reloading the page at 10 second intervals to see whether you get a new computed size while the clear function runs in the background. This may be something different you haven't tried before.
Reloading isn't going to make it any faster, but it's going to help determine whether the clear is running to completion (in the background) or stalling. Based on the experience of others, the first update to the cache size in the page usually is not the final size.
jscher2000 said
StevenCee saidI've done it dozens of times, and there's no rhyme or reason why it sometimes jumps 50 or 100 mbs at a time, or 1, 2, or 3, which is exasperatingly frustrating!You've done what dozens of times?
I'm suggesting a very specific study of clicking the Clear button only once and reloading the page at 10 second intervals to see whether you get a new computed size while the clear function runs in the background. This may be something different you haven't tried before.
Reloading isn't going to make it any faster, but it's going to help determine whether the clear is running to completion (in the background) or stalling. Based on the experience of others, the first update to the cache size in the page usually is not the final size.
I've refreshed the page every 10 seconds or so is what I've done dozens of times, what else would I have been talking about? I even quoted your comment so it would be quite clear what I was referencing... And of course I've been doing this more than once, as I said in my original post. It used to work by clearing it all on the second time, but now it takes from several to a great many, never just two....
StevenCee দ্বারা পরিমিত
StevenCee said
I've refreshed the page every 10 seconds or so is what I've done dozens of times, what else would I have been talking about? I even quoted your comment so it would be quite clear what I was referencing... And of course I've been doing this more than once, as I said in my original post. It used to work by clearing it all on the second time, but now it takes from several to a great many, never just two....
Oh, okay, I thought you might be clicking the "Clear Now" button again. I wanted to make sure you were only reloading the page and NOT clicking that button again since my goal is to see whether and how quickly/slowly the clear process continues working in the background. You're saying that after 10 seconds you could reload the page (Cmd+r) and see the size drop by only 1mb? That's much slower than I would expect, even with old hardware.
jscher2000, hi.
The said cache problem I have been experiencing for one or two versions of Firefox (I currently use FF46.0.1).
As you suggested to an earlier contributor I just checked about:cache and found that the total cache storage (memory & disk) was given as 8.873 MB compared to 8.1 MB shown under Tools/Options/Advanced, so a slight discrepancy there.
1) Leaving about:cache open I then attempted to clear the cache in Options/Advanced: nothing happened; I waited for ten seconds, but still nothing. I then refreshed the page and the figure of 8.1 MB changed to 0 MB. Next I refreshed the about:cache page and the storage figures there under memory and disk also changed to 0 KiB.
2) Secondly, with a cache of 1.4 MB now accumulated according to Options/Advanced I attempted to clear the cache: nothing happened, so I opened about:cache to check for any change; here cache storage was given as 2 KiB. I returned to Options/Advanced and refreshed the page, which then displayed the same cache size of 2 KiB that I cleared to 0 KiB by clicking on 'Clear Now' twice. I then refreshed about:cache which then showed the same figure.
This test would suggest that the cache does clear when clicking on 'Clear Now', but does not show it. This was indicated in (2) when I still saw 1.4 MB in Options/Advanced whilst about:cache showed only 2 KiB, which is what I saw in the former after refreshing the page.
Hope that helps someone to fix the problem.
Ian.
Ian.F said
jscher2000, hi. The said cache problem I have been experiencing for one or two versions of Firefox (I currently use FF46.0.1). As you suggested to an earlier contributor I just checked about:cache and found that the total cache storage (memory & disk) was given as 8.873 MB compared to 8.1 MB shown under Tools/Options/Advanced, so a slight discrepancy there. 1) Leaving about:cache open I then attempted to clear the cache in Options/Advanced: nothing happened; I waited for ten seconds, but still nothing. I then refreshed the page and the figure of 8.1 MB changed to 0 MB. Next I refreshed the about:cache page and the storage figures there under memory and disk also changed to 0 KiB. 2) Secondly, with a cache of 1.4 MB now accumulated according to Options/Advanced I attempted to clear the cache: nothing happened, so I opened about:cache to check for any change; here cache storage was given as 2 KiB. I returned to Options/Advanced and refreshed the page, which then displayed the same cache size of 2 KiB that I cleared to 0 KiB by clicking on 'Clear Now' twice. I then refreshed about:cache which then showed the same figure. This test would suggest that the cache does clear when clicking on 'Clear Now', but does not show it. This was indicated in (2) when I still saw 1.4 MB in Options/Advanced whilst about:cache showed only 2 KiB, which is what I saw in the former after refreshing the page. Hope that helps someone to fix the problem. Ian.
Ian, The problem with your experimenting, is that you're dealing with minuscule amounts of cache, going from 1.4 mb to 2kb is nothing. Try and clear 500 mb, by clicking and refreshing and clicking again, and again, and again. Sometimes, even when waiting ten seconds or so, it will only go down 3mb, or it will sometimes drop down 100mb, but it's quite erratic, and it takes many clicking, and waiting, and clicking and waiting, etc.
Up to now, when I clicked on Clear Cache, it would usually show no change, then when I clicked it again, it would be down to zero, so a total of two clicks, not 10, or 20, or more...
StevenCee said
Try and clear 500 mb, by clicking and refreshing and clicking again, and again, and again. Sometimes, even when waiting ten seconds or so, it will only go down 3mb, or it will sometimes drop down 100mb, but it's quite erratic, and it takes many clicking, and waiting, and clicking and waiting, etc.
Note: I suggested only refreshing the page, not clicking the Clear Now button again, because the process is supposed to be running to completion in the background without any further clicks on the Clear Now button.
A couple of patches for the failure to update the Preferences page after the cache is cleared will arrive in Firefox 48 according to these bugs:
- 1066970 – Indication of amount of content cache does not update when click [Clear Now] button preferences
- 1267195 – Another instance of 'indication of amount of content cache does not update when click [Clear Now] button preferences'.
However, that doesn't address the poor performance of the background thread clearing the cache on some systems. I didn't see a bug for that, so you might want to file a new one:
2 STEPS TO ZERO CACHE ON FF 45.0.2 - SOLVED! This is HOW I was able to RIDDLE this pesky FF issue.
1. In Preferences/Advanced - LEFT Click once on Clear Now button. 2. Then, LEFT Click & Hold Down x 10 seconds. Mine reads 0 (Zero). 3. Caveat - if not clearing to Zero, try Clearing Cookies 1st.
Waiting until FF 48.x to update 45, hopefully by then this issue has been addressed and permanently fixed.