How to clear Instagram cache

Is Instagram acting up on you? One of the most common Instagram troubleshooting tips is to clear the cache. Today, we aim to get you back to your Insta photos and videos as soon as possible by showing you how to clear Instagram cache.

Editor’s note: We used a Google Pixel 7 running Android 13, an Apple iPhone 12 Mini running iOS 17, and an HONOR MagicBook 14 running Windows 11 to formulate these steps. Keep in mind some menus and settings may be different depending on your device and the software it’s running.

How to clear Instagram cache on an iPhone

There is no direct way to clear Instagram cache on an iPhone, but you can accomplish this in a couple of ways. The simplest one is to delete the app and reinstall it.

How to delete an app on iPhone:

1. Tap and hold onto the Instagram app.
2. Select Remove App.
3. Tap on Delete App.
4. Go back to the Apple App Store, download Instagram, and sign in again.

Another method that will also work is to offload the Instagram app. Offloading an app deletes the app, but keeps documents and data so that you don’t have to redownload or set up the app completely when you download it again. We don’t really prefer this method because it might still keep some corrupted files around. It’s a good method to try if you don’t feel like performing a complete uninstall, though.

How to offload Instagram on iPhone:

1. Launch the Settings app.
2. Go into General.
3. Tap on iPhone Storage.
4. Scroll down to the apps and find Instagram. Select it.
5. Tap on Offload App.
6. Confirm by selecting Offload App.
7. You can now hit Reinstall App to get Instagram back on your iPhone.

How to clear Instagram cache on Android

Clearing an app’s cache is much more straightforward on Android devices. Let’s take you through the process.

How to clear app cache on Android:

1. Launch the Settings app.
2. Go into Apps.
3. Tap on See all apps.
4. Find and select Instagram.
5. Hit Storage & cache.
6. Tap on Clear cache. You can also select Clear storage if you want to clean all app data.

How to clear the cache on your PC browser

You can also use Instagram on a computer browser. Because it is the most popular in the world, we will assume you are using Chrome and cover the instructions for said browsers. If you want to figure out how to clear the cache on other browsers, take a look at this guide.

How to clear the cache on Chrome for PC:

1. Launch Google Chrome.
2. Click on the three-dot menu button in the top-right corner.
3. Highlight More Tools, then select Clear browsing data.
4. Make sure at least Cookies and other site data and Cached images and files are checked on.
5. Select the Time range.
6. When ready, select Clear data.

What does clearing Instagram cache do

Using an app may seem simple, but there is a bunch of stuff going on in the background with every tap and swipe. One of the most important background tasks is cache. Cache is essentially data the system stores locally.

This data can be retrieved for future use, instead of having to download the same information time and again. Pulling data from the local storage is also faster and less resource-intensive.

Knowing this, you may assume it makes no sense to delete cache, as it is actually helping. In most cases, you would be right. Cached data is a good thing to have! The thing is, some of these files can become corrupted with time. And if you have a lot of it, this can also cause issues. It’s good to clear the cache every now and then, and it often gets rid of common problems.

Clearing an app’s cache can be a good troubleshooting tip whenever you face any problems with an application. It also helps to do it regularly, maybe once a month or every couple of months, just for safe measure.

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