How to Clear the Cache on Facebook (2024)

Social Media > Facebook

Clear an overloaded cache to improve Facebook performance

Rob Rich

News Reporter

College for Creative Studies

Rob is a freelance tech reporter with experience writing for a variety of outlets, including IGN, Unwinnable, 148Apps, Gamezebo, Pocket Gamer, Fanbolt, Zam, and more.

lifewire's editorial guidelines

Updated on April 24, 2022

Reviewed by

Kayla Dube

What to Know

Clear your Facebook app from within via Settings & privacy > Settings > Permissions > Browser.
If you're using a web browser, you can clear the browser’s cache to get rid of Facebook's temporary data files.
Your user profile, photo albums, post history, and friends lists are not affected when you clear the cache.

This article explains how to clear the cache for your Facebook account.

What Happens if You Clear Cache in the Facebook App?

As you use Facebook (Or most social media platforms and web browsers, really), the various posts you make or interact with, photos you view or upload, and videos you share or watch are stored in the background to make everything load faster the next time you check these posts and pieces of media out. Over time, that data can build up and will start to take up more and more storage space, or possibly even cause Facebook to perform slower.

Clearing your cache removes that data that’s being stored in the background, effectively giving you a clean slate the next time you use the service. This may result in posts taking slightly longer to load up at first (because with no stored data it’s functionally like you’re viewing them for the first time again).

How Do I Clear My Cache and Cookies on Facebook?

Clearing your cache from the Facebook app itself is very straightforward and requires only a few steps.

If you’re using Facebook from a web browser (either on your phone or on your computer), you’ll need to clear your browser’s cache in order to clear Facebook’s.

Open the Facebook app and tap Menu icon in the bottom-right corner of the screen (it looks like three lines).
Scroll down and tap Settings & privacy.
Tap Settings.
Scroll down to the Permissions section and tap Browser.
Tap Clear under Browsing Data to clear your app’s cache.

Is It OK to Clear Data on Facebook?

It is completely okay to clear your Facebook cache. In fact, it’s recommended you do so semi-regularly (roughly once a month or so) as it will keep your storage space relatively free, and help to prevent Facebook from slowing down.

Clearing the cache is also often the remedy for issues like posts not displaying properly, updated profiles not appearing to update, and more. This is because some stored data may have become corrupted for one reason or another, and clearing those corrupted files out will force Facebook to replace them.

Your Facebook profile will not be affected by clearing the cache—all of your albums, lists, photos, posts, and so on will not be deleted or removed.

If you use Facebook on a browser and clear your browser’s cookies (which is separate from your browser’s cache), you’ll need to log back into your Facebook account.

FAQ

How do I clear notifications on Facebook?

To clear a single notification, first, go to the website or open the app and select the Notifications (bell) icon. Then, select the three-dot menu. Select Remove this notification to delete that one. You'll have to clear all of your notifications individually, but you can choose Turn off these notifications to stop additional ones from coming in. Go to Settings > Notifications to disable specific types of alerts (for example, "People You May Know."
How do I clear my Facebook search history?

You can delete Facebook searches both in a web browser and in the app. On the website, go to Account > Settings & Privacy > Activity Log > Search History and click Clear Searches in the upper-right corner. In the app, select the Search icon (magnifying glass) > Edit > Clear Searches.

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