Setting your Browser Cache

When you are using a dynamic website like Sakai@UD, web browsers might show you an outdated version of a page (what is called a "cached" version of the page). By default, browsers keep previous versions of a page to accelerate page loading, but this behavior might prevent you from displaying the newest information.

Browsers listed on this page:

Note: Internet Explorer and Firefox are the only two browsers that have been tested with Sakai. See Which browser should I use? for more details.

Internet Explorer (PC)

Note: This process works with Internet Explorer 7,8 and 9.

  1. In the Tools menu, click Internet options.

    Tools>Internet Options

  2. In the General tab, click the Browsing history's Settings button.

    Browsing history>Settings

  3. Select Every time I visit the webpage, and then click OK at the bottom of the page.

    Select Every time I visit the webpage

  4. The next step is to clear your cache. Click Delete... in the Browsing history section.

    IE9 browser settings

  5. Check Temporary Internet Files and History, then click Delete.

    IE9 Delete history

  6. Click OK again and close all your browser windows and restart Internet Explorer to apply all the changes.

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Firefox (PC)

Note: This process works with Firefox 3, 4, 5, and 6.

  1. In the Tools menu, click Options....

    Tools > Options...

  2. In the Advanced section, Network tab, set the Offline Storage cache space to 0 (zero), then click OK.

    Advanced > Network > Set cache to 0

  3. Open a browser window and type about:config (without typing http:// before), then press the return key. Scroll down to the browser.cache.check_doc_frequency setting and make sure that the value is set to 1. Double-click on the number to change the value if necessary. More information >

    Type about:config in the address bar > Set browser.cache.check_doc_frequency to 3

  4. Use the CTRL-SHIFT-DELETE keyboard shortcut to display the Clear Recent History dialog box. Select Everything from the Time range to clear menu, select at least Browsing & Download History and Cache from the list, then click Clear Now.

    FF6-Clear recent history

  5. Click OK again and close all your browser windows and restart Firefox to apply all the changes.

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Firefox (Mac)

Note: This process works with Firefox 3, 4, 5, and 6.

  1. In the Firefox menu, click Preferences....

    Tools > Options...

  2. In the Advanced section, Network tab, set the Offline Storage cache space to 0 (zero), then click Clear Now.

    Advanced > Network > Set cache to 0

  3. Open a browser window and type about:config (without typing http:// before), then press the return key. Scroll down to the browser.cache.check_doc_frequency setting and make sure that the value is set to 1. Double-click on the number to change the value if necessary. More information >

    Type about:config in the address bar > Set browser.cache.check_doc_frequency to 3

  4. Use the COMMAND-SHIFT-DELETE keyboard shortcut to display the Clear Recent History dialog box. Select Everything from the Time range to clear menu, select at least Browsing & Download History and Cache from the list, then click Clear Now.

    FF6-Mac-Clear-history

  5. Click OK again and close all your browser windows and restart Firefox to apply all the changes.

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This page was originally inspired by "Lesson 6: Setting your Browser Cache" by Gayle L. Fornataro from Virtual Valley.