Always wondered how to clear WordPress cache? In this article, we’ll show how to clear the WordPress cache in various caching plugins, including WP Rocket, WP Fastest Cache, and W3 Total Cache.
Let’s jump right into the meat of the article!
What is Caching?
Before we dive into how to clear WordPress Cache, first, you need to understand what WordPress Caching is.
We’ve already explained this in our other WordPress caching guides you can see here.
But in short, caching is like when the waiter or waitress at your favorite restaurant remembers your order, so you don’t have to repeat yourself each time. Caching works; in the same way, your browser or the website saves your website so the next time it needs to be loaded, everything is ready to go.
Reasons Why You Need to Clear Your WordPress Cache
New Content Isn’t Displaying
If you’ve ever used caching on your website and made an update, chances are you’ve run into this issue.
Most commonly, this happens when you make changes in the WordPress customizer, or you update an existing page or post on your WordPress website.
Some WordPress caching plugins automatically clear (also known as “purge”) their cache when you make an update to a page or post. However, in some instances, you may still need to clear the WordPress cache manually.
It’s worth noting though that even if you clear your WordPress cache, you’ll also need to clear your browser cache. Or alternatively, use an incognito window to see your changes if the content has been cached by your browser.
Plugin & Theme Updates
After you’ve updated your plugins and your theme, you should always clear your WordPress cache, why?
Picture this, your caching plugin has cached all the assets (CSS, JS) of your other plugins and theme, you update, and suddenly your website is broken. 😱This is because the CSS/JS files are out of date.
Clear your WordPress cache, refresh your browser cache and et voila! Your site should be working again!
One of the most common questions any WordPress plugin or theme company receives is, “why did my website stop working after the last update?” And the most common response to that is “clear your cache and try again.”
And often it works! That’s why you need to clear the WordPress cache after each and every plugin or theme update you perform.
How to Clear Your WordPress Cache
Let’s be honest this is what you came for — how to clear your WordPress cache, don’t worry if you don’t use the plugins we show here as the process is more or less the same with each plugin.
How to Clear Cache in WP Rocket
It’s no secret, we’re big fans of WP Rocket here at Astra, and you’ll be pleased to know it’s super simple to clear the WP Rocket Cache.
In your wp-admin there’s a WP Rocket menu added to the toolbar:
Hover over “WP Rocket” and then in the displayed dropdown click on “Clear Cache”:
And it’s done! You’ve now learned how to clear the WP Rocket Cache.
Anything important to note?
WP Rocket has support for cache-preloading — allowing you to automatically build the cache of your site without requiring visitors to visit each page to create the cache.
How to Clear Cache in W3 Total Cache
W3 Total Cache works a bit differently to the other caching plugins in our list as you can clear each different time of cache or clear all caches at once.
In W3 Total Cache, clearing WordPress cache is referred to as “Purge all Caches.”
There are two ways to clear the WordPress cache in W3 Total Cache.
1. Clear All Caches From the Toolbar
In the wp-admin toolbar you’ll see an item called “Performance”:
Hover over this and then in the resulting drop-down click on “Purge all caches”:
Once you click that, all the caching methods you have setup in W3 Total Cache will be automatically cleared.
2. Clear Each Individual WordPress Cache
In your wp-admin > Performance > General Settings, you can scroll down through each individual cache option and click the “Empty Cache” button to clear the cache.
If the “Empty Cache” button isn’t clickable, then you most likely don’t have that specific caching module enabled.
And it’s as simple as that to clear W3 Total Cache.
Clear WP Fastest Cache
WP Fastest Cache has two ways to clear the cache. You can also separately clear the minified CSS/JS files, perfect for if you’re updating plugins/themes or other site styles.
In the wp-admin toolbar you’ll see a new “Delete Cache” button, hover that and you’ll then have two options:
- Clear all cache — deletes every cache file on your website.
- Clear cache and all minified JS/CSS files — deletes every cache file on your website and also clears the minified files. Use this option after you’ve upgraded your theme/plugins.
And the second way of clearing your cache in WP Fastest Cache is from the plugin settings. In your wp-admin > Fastest Cache > Delete cache, you’ll see two buttons:
The two options provided are the same options we talked about earlier on with one to delete the cache and one to delete both the cache and minified CSS/JS files.
Clear Cache in WP Super Cache
It couldn’t be simpler to delete the cache with WP Super Cache. As soon as you install the plugin a new button is added to the wp-admin toolbar “delete cache”:
Click on “delete cache,” and instantly, the entire cache on your site is deleted.
WP Super Cache also has the option for you to delete the cache of all pages from the main plugin settings in your wp-admin > Settings > WP Super Cache > Delete cache.
And done! You’ve now successfully cleared your WP Super Cache, cache.
How to Clear Cache in Cachify
Unlike the other plugins mentioned in this article, you won’t find a shortcut to deleting caching in the wp-admin toolbar.
Instead head on over to your wp-admin > Settings > Cachify:
And you’ll notice something strange… there are no options to delete the cache, this means that unlike other caching plugins you can’t clear the cache whenever you feel like it. Meaning you’ll need to wait for the cache to expire automatically.
How to Clear Swift Performance Lite Cache
In the wp-admin bar you’ll see the Swift Performance Lite shortcuts:
Hover over that and you’ll then see the “clear cache” option in the dropdown:
Click that, and the Swift Performance Lite WordPress cache will be cleared.
How to Clear Cache in Breeze
Breeze like most the other plugins mentioned within this article adds a new admin menu item to the toolbar within the WordPress admin area:
Hover over that, and you’ll then see two primary options:
- Purge all cache — clears all caches created by Breeze.
- Purge modules — there are another two sub-options within this option:
- Purge Varnish cache — clears the varnish cache; if you aren’t using varnish on your server, this option won’t have any effect.
- Purge internal cache — Clears WordPress internal cache.
Select whichever option to clear your WordPress cache, and then you’re good to go!
Conclusion
In this article, we’ve shown you how to clear WordPress cache in several popular caching plugins. Despite the conception that caching can be challenging to clear, it’s much simpler than it may initially seem.
Have you had problems with clearing caching within WordPress plugins before? Let us know in the comments below.
