There have probably been many instances when you were trying to solve a problem with your Internet connection on your computer and someone recommended that you delete cookies from your browser. If you’re not familiar with this term, then you should familiarize yourself with it.
In this article we want to clarify a few things about what cookies are, why it is important to clean them from your PC and you how to remove cookies from Chrome.
What are cookies?
Simply put, cookies are small pieces of data that are sent to your web browser, such as Google Chrome, from the websites you visit. These small packets contain information about your activity on the pages you access on the Internet, which your browser stores in the form of a small text file.
What types of information do cookies store? Cookies can store information about usernames and passwords, site preferences, or even what you might have removed from your shopping cart when you visited Amazon. Basically, your Google Chrome browser, like most other browsers used to navigate the web, stores or saves all this data so you don’t have to re-enter it every time you visit those sites, which is a convenient feature for many users.
There are different types of cookies that behave in different ways. For example, there are cookies that are designed to be automatically deleted each time you close your browser window. There are also other types of cookies that are designed to be stored on your computer’s hard drive until they expire or are manually deleted.
As to why they are called cookies, it originated from the phrase “fortune cookies,” in the sense that they contain hidden information.
How often and why should you delete cookies?
There are some cases where it is advisable to delete these files.
For example, the information stored in the cookie cache can sometimes conflict with the website they refer to, especially when the website has recently been updated. This can cause errors when you try to access that web page again.
Cookies do not contain any personal information about the user, unless the user wanted to inform the website by means of some kind of questionnaire and if it contains personal information it is encrypted.
So, how do I delete cookies in Google Chrome?
Fortunately, deleting cookies Chrome is a very simple process that takes no more than a couple of minutes to complete. It is important to mention, however, that the steps below are only for the Google Chrome browser, so if you use a different browser, the steps will be different.
Let’s see how to clear the Chrome cookies on your PC:
NOTE: Removing Chrome cookies will sign you out of the websites where you’re registered, which means your saved preferences may be deleted. This is important because if you forget your access password, you may have trouble logging in to your favorite sites.
- On your computer, open the Google Chrome browser.
- Now click on the icon with three horizontal stripes located in the top right corner of the page.
- In the context menu, click ‘Settings’.
- On the page that appears, scroll to the bottom and click the “Show advanced settings” link.
- In the Privacy section, go to ‘Content Settings.
- In the “Cookies” section, click on “All cookies and all site data…”.
Below you can see all the cookies from the websites you have visited that are stored on your computer.
You have the option to select each cookie individually or simply click “Delete all” to delete all Chrome cookies completely.
Now if you want to prevent cookies from being stored on your computer, here’s what you need to do:
- Also go to the “Settings” section by clicking on the icon in the top right corner of the page.
- Then click on the ‘Show advanced settings’ link and then in the Privacy section, click on the ‘Content settings’ section.
- Finally, in the Cookies section, enable the option ‘Block data settings on sites’ and then click ‘Done’ to save your changes.
Deleting Chrome cookies from an Android phone or tablet
If you want to delete cookies in Google Chrome from your mobile phone or tablet with Android, you can do the same and the procedure is equally simple.
Open the Chrome app on your Android device and then click on the three-point vertical icon at the top right of the screen.
At the bottom of the context menu click on the “Settings” option.
Then click on the “Privacy” section and then at the bottom click on the “Clear browsing data” option.
On the next screen you can select a time range that can be “Last minute”, “Last 24 hours”, “Last 7 days”, “Last four weeks” and “Since always”.
Finally, click on “Clear all data”.
Advanced settings are available that allow you to select items to delete, including saved passwords, auto-fill form data, website settings, and more.
What happens to the browser’s cache, should I delete it too?
Now let’s talk a little bit about your browser’s cache and why it’s important to delete it regularly. When we refer to the browser cache, we are simply talking about a place on your computer’s hard drive, where the web browser stores all the data it downloads from the web pages, so that in case the user visits that site again, it will be faster to load the page.
The first time you access a web page on the Internet, the browser downloads certain elements of the website, such as logos, images, etc., and stores it in cache memory.
It then shows these elements on the page you are viewing, which means that for every additional page you visit, it is not necessary to re-download those elements from the web page. These elements are always displayed in the same place as they are stored on the hard drive.