How To Clear Cache In My Android Phone

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Even if you're surfing the Internet on your new Android phone, from time to time, it's a good idea to clear out the history and cache. Clearing out the cache can improve performance, and clearing your history and auto-complete information can contribute to improving security.

Good news! The process is easy and quick, so let's take a look at this Quick-Tip.

Note: This article was written in 2010 when Android was in its early days. Now you can clear your browsing history and cache from Settings inside Chrome or whatever browser you're using.

Step 1 –While in the Android browser, Tap the external menu button.
Note: On my Samsung Galaxy S it was located at the bottom left corner of the screen, but this can vary depending on your device.

Press the menu button on your android phone - galaxy s

The menu should now appear in the display. Tap the More option from that list.

access the more menu on android browser

Step 2 – Tap the Settings option from the list.

access the settings menu in android browser

Step 3 – Scroll down the settings window until you get to Privacy settings.

There are quite a few things to clear here:

Clear cache
Clear history
Clear all cookie data
Clear form data
Clear location access

clear android browsing history on your phone

Step 4 – Click on everything in Step 3 above; a prompt will appear for each one. Tap OK to confirm the deletion each time.

confirm navigation history erase on android phone browser

Step 5 – Optional: Clear Passwords, and Nuke

There are two additional options at the bottom of the settings page you can opt to do if you like.

One is the Clear Passwords button that will just erase all passwords and account information that gets saved on your Android device. This action isn't necessary, but it can keep people from accessing your online services if your phone falls into the wrong hands.

Another option is Reset to default aka the Nuke button. One Press on the nuke button and your Android browser will revert to factory settings, clearing out everything else at the same time. I would suggest this, but it is a pain to change the browser home page, so I never use this button.

android browser nuke button, reset to factory defaults, and clear passwords

Done!

After following the above steps, your Android browser is now clean from all history and cache files. You can rest at ease while letting other people use the browser app on your device! They won't be able to hijack your Facebook account or run into an embarrassing suggested Google search.