Clearing the Cache

Overview

"Cache" is a technical term used to describe the way your store "remembers" information, in a way that helps to increase the speed at which your customers can see pages, products, and other content.

Sometimes, the cache works a bit too well, and you might want to clear it out to show the most recent updates to a portion of your store and/or overall site content.  You should know that the cache clears itself over time, based upon your store's website and web server configuration.

 When you clear the cache, all of the information that's currently being held in memory will be deleted, and refreshed with the latest information.

Requirements

The following pre-requisites will be necessary to accomplish the goals of this article:

• Basic understanding of using a web browser
• Admin and/or Superuser login access

Getting Started

If you haven’t done so already, login to your store using a CMS “admin” or “superuser” account.  This will be necessary in order to manage the files and folders that you’ll need to have access to.

Please Note: Clearing the cache may result in a brief performance impact on your site, with the next few page loads taking longer than normal.  This is expected, as your site is attempting to reload all of the information it previously had in memory.  If you don't want to impact the page load times on your site, you should instead consider allowing the cache to clear itself natually.

How to Clear the Cache

There are a few places that cache can be cleared.  They are each explained below.  In general, there is store cache and content cache.  The store cache is related to all of the e-commerce parts of your store. The content cache relates to all other aspects of your website and it's content.  

Please be aware that on occasion, you'll want to clear both the store and the site cache in order to see a desired result.  

Store Cache: Single Store

If you're running multiple storefronts on the same account, this is the first place you'll want to try to clear cache.  Doing this will only impact the store/catalog information, and only for the specific site where you're doing this. 

Go to the store administration area.  You'll find the store cache option in the Settings menu.

All you need to do now, is click the Clear Store Cache button, and you're done.  

Store Cache: All Stores

This option will only be shown to you if you're logged in as a superuser.  You'll find the Superuser Admin area in the control panel of the commerce administration area.

You'll now see a section where you can clear the cache.  Simply click the Clear Cache button, and you're done.  

Content Cache

This option will only be shown to you if you're logged in as a superuser.  You'll find the Clear Cache option in the Tools menu of the Control Panel.

Simply click this link, and the enter site cache will be deleted for all settings, pages on the site, and content on those pages.