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Maintenance: Clear Cache

Description

Clears cache files from the cache folders if enabled under the Site Global Configuration settings.

Cache files are temporary files that are created to improve the performance of your site. If you have made significant changes to your web site, such as changing your Template or Language, your cache files may be out of date. To avoid any problems caused by out of date cache files, you can delete all of the cache files. After deletion of all Cache files the website may be a little slower until the cache files are re-created with use.

How to Access

  • Select System → Maintenance Panel → Clear Cache from the Administrator menu.

Screenshot

Help-4x-System-Clear-Cache-screen-en.png

Column Headers

  • #. An indexing number automatically assigned by Joomla! for ease of reference.
  • Checkbox. Check this box to select one or more items. To select all items, check the box in the column heading. After one or more boxes are checked, click a toolbar button to take an action on the selected item or items. Many toolbar actions, such as Publish and Unpublish, can work with multiple items. Others, such as Edit, only work on one item at a time. If multiple items are checked and you press Edit, the first item will be opened for editing.
  • Cache Group. The type of item being cached in this file. This is also the name of the subdirectory where this type of cache file is stored. The cache files are stored in the directory "<path-to-Joomla!>/cache/<Cache Group Name>".
  • Number of Files. The number of files currently in this cache group.
  • Size. The total size, in KB, of the cache files in this group.

List Filters

Search bar. Near the top of the page you will see the search bar shown in the Screenshot above.

  • Search by Text. Enter part of the search term and click the Search icon. Hover to see a Tooltip indicating which fields will be searched.To 'Search by ID' enter "id:x", where "x" is the ID number (for example, "id:19").
  • Filter Options. Click to display the additional filters.
  • Clear. Click to clear the Filter field and restore the list to its unfiltered state.
  • Ordering. Shows the current list ordering field. 2 ways to change the order:
    • Select from the dropdown list. Ordering may be in ascending or descending order.
    • Click a column heading. The column heading toggles between ascending and descending order.
  • Number to Display. Shows the number of items in a list. Select from the dropdown list to change the number displayed.The default for a site is '20' but this may be changed in the Global Configuration.

Filter Options

  • None. This screen has no Filter Options.

Page Controls. When the number of items is more than one page, you will see a page control bar near the bottom of the page shown in the Screenshot above. The current page number being viewed has a dark colour background.

  • Start. Click to go to the first page.
  • Prev. Click to go to the previous page.
  • Page numbers. Click to go to the desired page.
  • Next. Click to go to the next page.
  • End. Click to go to the last page.

Toolbar

At the top of the page you will see the toolbar shown in the Screenshot above. The functions are:

  • Delete: Deletes the selected items. Works with one or multiple items selected.
  • Delete All: Deletes all the items. Works with all items.
  • Clear Expired Cache. Deletes all expired cache files. Cache files that are still current will not be deleted. WARNING: This operation can be resource intensive on sites with a large number of items.
  • Options. Opens the Options window where settings such as default parameters can be edited.
  • Help. Opens this help screen.

Quick Tips

  • Normally you want to delete all cache files. To do this, click the check box in the column heading to select all files and then click the Delete icon in the toolbar.

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