Clear your browser: cache and cookies in Chrome, Safari, Edge

The cache holds saved copies of pages you have already visited, and cookies are small files that keep you signed in. Clearing them fixes pages that look wrong, buttons that do nothing and sign-ins that hang. It takes two minutes.

One thing to know before you start: clearing cookies signs you out of almost every website. Make sure you know your passwords, or that they are saved in your browser's password manager. Always type passwords in yourself and never give them to anyone, including us.

Try this first

If only one page is misbehaving, you do not need to clear everything:

1. Fetch the page again without the cache. Hold Shift and click the reload button, the circular arrow next to the address bar. The page then comes down complete and new.
2. Try a private window. In Chrome and Edge: the three dots at the top right, then New Incognito window or New InPrivate window. In Safari: File, New Private Window. A private window uses no saved copy, so if the page works there, the cache is what is holding you up.
3. Sign out and back in on the service. That replaces the cookie without touching anything else.
4. Close and reopen the browser. Tabs left open for weeks make a browser sluggish on their own.
5. Check the browser is up to date. In Chrome and Edge: the three dots, Help, About. The browser updates itself when the window is closed and opened again, and an old version is a common reason a page looks wrong.

If that did not help

In Chrome, on a computer:

1. Click the three dots at the top right and choose Delete browsing data. The shortcut is Ctrl + Shift + Delete on Windows, or Command + Shift + Delete on a Mac.
2. Set the time range to All time.
3. Tick Cookies and other site data, and Cached images and files.
4. Browsing history you can tick or leave, it makes no difference to how sites work.
5. Click Delete data and restart Chrome.

In Safari, on a Mac:

1. Click Safari in the menu bar at the top and choose Settings.
2. Go to the Privacy tab, click Manage Website Data, then Remove All.
3. To clear history as well: History in the menu bar, Clear History, choose all history.

In Safari, on an iPhone:

1. Open Settings, scroll to Apps and tap Safari.
2. Tap Clear History and Website Data and confirm.

In Edge:

1. The three dots at the top right, Settings, Privacy, search, and services.
2. Under Clear browsing data, click Choose what to clear.
3. Set All time, tick cookies and cached files, click Clear now.

If it keeps happening

If you have to clear every week to keep a site working, the cause lies elsewhere. Look through your browser extensions, the small add-on programs, and remove anything you did not install yourself. In Chrome you reach them through the three dots, Extensions, Manage extensions.

If clearing locks you out of something you need, such as online banking or Kivra, go in through that service's own app or website and sign in again with BankID rather than clearing a second time. More clearing rarely fixes a sign-in that is already struggling, and each round throws away your saved choices on every other site too.