How to Clear Instagram Cache the Right Way [2023]

In Summary

Instagram is a widely known social media that allows users to connect and share content with their followers in the form of photos, videos, stories, and more.
The platform puts the creator at the center and offers features like Stories, IGTV, Reels, and a personalized explore page to discover new content.
In this guide, you’ll learn how to clear Instagram cache, speed up the app, fix common issues, and create a seamless app experience.

Social media has revolutionized the way people consume content, connect with friends and family, and interact with brands and businesses. For many smartphone users of today’s generation, they have become an integral part of daily life. And apps like WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and Twitter account for most of that.

Instagram is a platform for individuals (including content creators and media houses) and businesses to connect, communicate, and share content and information with a large and diverse audience. The platform puts the user at the center, has a strong mobile focus, and is mainly used on mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets.

Table of Contents

What Is Cache?

A cache is a small set of temporary data, including blocks and files, where frequently accessed data is stored for faster access. The purpose of a cache is to quickly load an application or a previously visited web page and access data that would otherwise take a long time to retrieve. This improves the overall performance of a system and reduces data usage on the Internet.

In contrast, an app cache refers to the temporary data stored by a single application in a device’s memory. The purpose of an app cache is to provide quick access to frequently used data, which can improve the overall performance and speed of the app. However, it is common for the cache and some temporary files to be stored on internal memory to prevent the cache from being cleared during a power failure or reboot.

What is the Purpose of App Cache?

A social media app stores information such as your login activity, profile information, the posts you have viewed, liked, and shared, including video buffer data and some other files in the form of an app cache. The cache data allows the app to quickly retrieve this information the next time you use it instead of retrieving it from the server and reloading it.

Because the data is stored in memory, it’s much easier and faster for the CPU to access and process the information, reducing system load and saving data.

How Clearing Cache Can Fix Issues Related to Instagram?

Clearing the cache of an app like Instagram or Facebook can fix common problems related to that app. It can help fix issues caused by corrupted temporary data. It is a helpful troubleshooting step when the app is not working properly or even crashes. Clearing the app cache may neither delete essential data nor log you out of the app. Still, there may be scenarios when you might get logged out after clearing the cache, as the login activity sometimes gets deleted during cache clearing.

Common Workarounds You Can Try to Fix App-Related Issues:

Reload the app: there is a possibility that the previous session is still running in the background and the app is not loading or displaying newer content. In most cases, closing the app, deleting it from memory, and then reopening it can help.
Check the network: it’s common for your wifi to go down or for cellular reception to be poor, causing the app not to load or work properly. Running a speed test and checking for network or server outages might be the right solution for you.
Update the app: Navigate to the Google Play Store (on Android) or the App Store (on iOS), find the app and check if a newer version of the app is available. Updating the app can fix bugs, improve the overall performance of the app, and in some cases, improve compatibility with newer devices.
Update the browser: If you are using Instagram over the internet with one of the supported browsers, updating your browser may just fix the problem.
Log out and sign in again: simply logging out can clear login activity and user data, while logging in again overwrites cached data and helps you start a new session where you left off.
Restart the device: as cliché as it may sound, a simple restart can sometimes help you get rid of unnecessary services running in the background and also restart the essential services and components of the operating system.
Check for app compatibility: make sure that the app is compatible with your device’s operating system and hardware. You may be using an Android/iOS version that is no longer supported.

Note:

Clearing the app cache is one of the most important fixes you can do to make the app work correctly without affecting user data, and without being logged out of the app.

You do not have to worry about a thing. With our easy-to-follow step-by-step guide, anyone can clear Instagram cache, regardless of device or platform.

How to clear Instagram cache on Android

1. Navigate to the “Settings” app on your device.

2. Select “Apps” or “Application Manager.”

3. Wait for the page to load, scroll down to find the Instagram app in the list, or click the search bar at the top and find the app through it, tap the Instagram app.

4. Alternatively, you can long-press the app icon on the home screen and click App Info. This will take you directly to the settings page of the app in question.

5. Click on “Storage/Clear data.”

6. Select “Clear Cache.”

Note:

Unlike Android, iOS does not offer much flexibility to the user. Therefore, the only option is to uninstall and reinstall the app to remove all app data, including the cache.

Related Read: How to See Instagram Memories

How to clear Instagram cache on iPhone/iPad:

Looking to clear Instagram cache iPhone? Here are the steps:

1. Go to the “Settings” app on your device.

2. Tap on “General.”

3. Select “iPhone Storage.”

4. Find the Instagram app in the list and tap on it by scrolling down or using the search bar at the top.

5. Click “Delete app” to completely remove the app from your device along with all its data.

6. Alternatively, you can long-press the app icon on the home screen and click the “Remove app” option in the quick actions list at the top.

7. After removal, we recommend restarting your device and installing the app from the App Store to ensure that all app-related data is deleted and you can start fresh.

Note:

Clearing the cache will not remove any important data and will not log you out of the app, but you will have to start over when you reinstall the app.

How to Clear Instagram Cache From Any Browser:

To clear the cache on Instagram in the Chrome browser on Windows, MacOS, or Linux:

1. Open the Chrome browser.

2. Click the three-dot menu in the upper-right corner of the browser window.

3. Select “More Tools,” then “Clear Browsing Data.”

4. In this window, select the “Cached images and files” checkbox.

5. Select the time range for which you want to clear the cache.

6. Click the “Clear Data” button.

7. This will clear the cache for all websites, including Instagram, that you have visited in the Chrome browser on your Windows device.

Conclusion:

Using the method mentioned above and the steps we have described in this article, you can easily clear your Instagram cache and restore the app to its normal working state. We recommend that you use only the official methods to perform these actions in the way described above. We don’t recommend installing any third-party cleaning apps to perform these actions for you, as this could lead to potential data loss and exploitation of some serious security vulnerabilities.

Let’s know in the comments below if you found this article on clearing Instagram cache helpful. If yes, then share it with your friends and family so that they can also benefit from it and solve their app-related problems without data loss.