If you’re facing issues with website loading or seeing outdated content, clearing your DNS cache might help. DNS cache stores information about domain names to speed up browsing, but sometimes it can cause problems. In this blog, we’ll show you how to clear the DNS cache in Chrome and other popular browsers to help resolve these issues and improve your browsing experience.
What is chrome://net-internals/dns?
chrome://net-internals/dns is a complex internal page in Google Chrome that shows full information about the users DNS cache. Here users can see all the DNS records currently cached by chrome, they also have options to flush this cache.
Problems like accessing stale or wrong webpages, as well as addressing connectivity issues can be resolved by clearing the DNS cache and thereby forcing Chrome to perform new DNS lookups. Various network diagnostics features are available through the chrome://net-internals tool – here we will use it solely for DNS data, so head straight to the dns page.
What is the DNS Cache?
If you are not familiar with a DNS cache, is the system used by web browsers and operating systems to save already resolved previous Domain Name System requests. When you access a web page, your browser uses the DNS (Domain Name System) to translate the URL into an IP address.
The particular information gets stored into the DNS cache which further helps in reducing other queries needed to solve over time, increasing browsing efficiency. By keeping these pages cached, the cache can help with load times of your most frequented sites and save on network traffic, but when items in this space get stale or corrupt they cause problems like missing page content poor rendering by websites.
When does Chrome’s DNS cache need to be cleared?
One of the times you might need to do this is when having problems, such as long-lived access issues for some website, outdated web content being shown or errors related to DNS resolution. If you are encountering problems with new website updates or after updating DNS settings, clearing the cache may also be helpful.
Errors such as page not found, DNS errors or connectivity issues can be an indication that the cached DNS entries are expired. This will clear the DNS cache of Chrome which in turn force it to get new information on how and from where site pages should be loaded.
How do you clear or flush the DNS cache on your Apple iPhone (Chrome)?
When you clear the DNS cache in Chrome on iPhone, you may need to get rid of cached data that could contain some sensitive information like DNS records. The step process to create a Retry Strategy:
- Open Chrome on your iPhone
- Then tap the three-dot menu button in the bottom right side of your screen.
- Go to “Settings.”
- Select “Privacy.“
- Tap “Clear Browsing Data.”
- Select “All Time” within the time range so all cached data can be removed.
- Select “Cached Images and Files” (the DNS cache is saved with this)
- Click on “Clear Browsing Data” to finish. If you see a cache in the action name then it will clean up all of these this may help resolve issues related to connectivity because some time stale data cause connection problems.
How do you clear or flush the DNS cache on Opera?
To clear the DNS cache in Opera:
- Open the Opera browser.
- Opera seems to offer a built-in page for this: opera://net-internals/#dns
- This will send you to the internals page for DNS, where we can view our dns cache entries.
- On the top right, press “Clear host cache” The flushdns argument will clear the DNS cache – This deletes everything and reloads new information from Internet.
How do you clear or flush the DNS cache on Safari?
To clear the DNS cache in Safari
- Open Safari on your Mac.
- In the top Menu bar, click on Safari and then Preferences.
- Go to the Advanced tab, and then check off Show Develop menu in menu bar 3.
- Simply close the Preferences window, and you will now have a new ‘Develop‘ menu in the menubar.
- Go to “Develop“, “Empty Caches” This will also clear the cache, including DNS and fix any problems related to the domain.
How do you clear or flush out the DNS cache on Firefox?
To Flush the DNS Cache in Firefox
- Open Firefox.
- In the address bar, type about:networking#dns and press Enter.
- Firefox internal Network Tools — DNS
- Select “Clear DNS Cache” and press the button. This will flush cached DNS records and make Firefox get new DNS information that can fix domain resolution problems.
How do you clear or flush out the DNS cache on MS-Windows 7/8/10/11?
To refresh DNS cache on Windows 7/8/10,
- Run the command prompt as an Administrator. Just search for “cmd” in the Start menu, right-click on Command Prompt and click Run as administrator.
- Type ipconfig /flushdns and press Enter in the Command Prompt window.
- A message should be displayed stating that the DNS Resolver Cache has been successfully cleared. This clears all stored DNS records and could potentially fix issues with incorrect or outdated data in the DNs.
How do you clear or flush DNS on Windows XP and Vista?
To flush the DNS Cache on Windows XP and Vista:
- Get the Command Prompt by typing “cmd” into a Windows 10 search in menu.
- Enter ipconfig /flushdns and hit enter.
- Now there will be a message confirming that the DNS cache has cleared. This process resolves DNS Resolution issues as it clears the cached DNS information.
How do you clear or flush out the DNS cache on Apple macOS?
To clear the DNS cache on macOS:
- Open the Terminal from Applications > Utilities.
- The above command could be different based on what version of macOS you are using:macOS Catalina and later enter sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder
- If you are still on macOS Mojave or earlier, enter sudo dscacheutil -flushcache;sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder and push the Enter button.
- This will guide you through the rest of machine (you may need to enter your own admin password).
- This command clears the DNS cache, which means that you will then ask your system to look for new DNS records and maybe solve those issues of old not updated or incorrect data.
How to Clear or Flush DNS on Linux?
On Linux Clear DNS Cache
- Open Terminal.
- The command to flush the DNS cache depends on the system’s DNS service:
- For systems using systemd, type sudo systemd-resolve –flush-caches and press Enter.
- For systems using dnsmasq, type sudo /etc/init.d/dnsmasq restart and press Enter
- For systems using BIND, type sudo rndc flush and press Enter.
This will clear the DNS cache from the specified service, helping to resolve issues with DNS resolution and ensuring that the latest DNS information is used.
How to Check if DNS Cache is Flushed or Not?
If you have managed to flush the DNS cache:
- On a Windows type ipconfig /displaydns. If the cache is cleared, you should see minimal or no entries.
- On macOS, use the command sudo dscacheutil -cachedump -entries host or sudo killall -INFO mDNSResponder to check the DNS cache status. If flushed, the output will show that the cache is empty or refreshed.
- On Linux, use systemd-resolve –statistics or check the status of the relevant DNS service to ensure the cache has been cleared. You should see updated statistics or indications that the cache has been reset.
Also Read: How to Access 192.168.188.1
FAQs on chrome.//net-internals/dns
Does clearing DNS clear history?
No, clearing DNS does not affect your browsing history. It only removes stored IP address information. Your browsing history is managed separately by your web browser.
What does DNS caching do?
DNS caching stores IP addresses of recently visited domain names to speed up future requests. This reduces the need to repeatedly query DNS servers.
What does clearing DNS cache do?
It removes saved IP addresses, forcing your system to look up domain names again the next time you visit a site. This can help resolve issues with outdated or incorrect site information.
Where is my DNS cache?
It’s stored in your system’s memory and managed by your operating system. Location varies by OS (e.g., Command Prompt for Windows, Terminal for macOS and Linux). The cache is typically not visible to users directly.
Is it okay to delete DNS cache?
Yes, it’s fine. It helps fix website access issues and may slow down the first visit to sites after clearing. Regularly clearing the DNS cache can also help with resolving persistent connectivity problems.
