As we’ve mentioned previously, your cache and Internet browsing history are useful in certain ways. Respectively, they help you load websites faster by remembering what’s already there, and remember what website’s you’ve been to, even if you haven’t bookmarked them.
However, sometimes these things won’t always be necessary, and can actually be privacy hazards. Certain websites and people may use the information within your cache or browsing history to track what you do on the Internet. Therefore, it’s a good idea to clear each of them out once in a while.
For a lengthier discussion on what your cache and browsing history do, or why you should delete the information within them occasionally, visit our What is a Cache and Internet Browsing History and How to Clear a Cache and Internet Browsing History tutorials.
How to clear your Firefox cache and browsing history
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Open your Firefox web browser by double-clicking on its icon.
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Click the menu icon in the top-right corner, click the History button, and then click Clear Recent History.
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If you have the Menu Toolbar enabled, you can also simply click the History menu, and then click Clear Recent History from there.
(HINT: You can also use a keyboard shortcut to do this by holding down the “Control” and “Shift” keys, and then pressing the “Delete” key.)
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A window will pop up allowing you to select what you want to delete, with “Browsing and Download History” and “Cache” among the options. Click the check boxes beside the types of files that you want to delete, or click again to uncheck them if you don’t want them deleted.
You can also click the drop-down menu beside “Time Range to Clear” to select how long files have to have been on your computer in order to be marked for deletion. Your options include files from Last Hour, Last Two Hours, Last Four Hours, Today, or Everything.
When you’re done selecting your options, click Clear Now.
That’s how to get rid of your cache and browsing history in Firefox! Up next, we’ll go over how to clear cookies in Firefox. Don’t worry; the steps are very similar to the ones that we just went over in this tutorial.
