You’ve updated your CSS, but Chrome on Android keeps serving the old version. Your long cache times are doing their job – just a little too well. This Android Chrome clear cache for one site method deals with it without wiping your entire browser cache.
Clear Cache for Just One Site
The cleanest way to clear cache for a single origin on Android Chrome:
- Open the page in Chrome
- Tap the lock/info icon in the address bar
- Tap Site settings
- Scroll down and tap Clear & reset
This clears cookies and cached data for just that site – nothing else in your browser is touched.
Clear & reset also signs you out of that site and resets its permissions (location, notifications and so on), because it removes the site’s cookies and stored data along with the cache. Every other site stays as it was.
The Nuclear Option (With a Limiter)
If you’d rather go through the main settings, you can limit the damage:
- Tap the three dots menu (⋮) → Settings
- Go to Privacy and security → Clear browsing data
- Tap Advanced and uncheck everything except Cached images and files
- Set the Time range to the last hour or day to minimise collateral damage
What About Force-Refresh?
Unlike desktop Chrome (where Ctrl+Shift+R does a hard reload), Android Chrome doesn’t have a built-in force-refresh shortcut. The site settings method above is your best equivalent.
Desktop Chrome: Clear Cache for One Site
On a computer you have two quick options:
- Hard reload for the page you’re on: open DevTools (F12, or Cmd+Option+I on a Mac), then right-click the reload button and choose Empty Cache and Hard Reload. This only works while DevTools is open.
- Delete one site’s stored data: click the icon to the left of the address, choose Site settings, then Delete data. You can also go to
chrome://settings/content/all, search for the site, and delete it there.
Cache vs Cookies vs Site Data
What is the difference?
- Cache is saved copies of files such as images, CSS and scripts, so pages load faster next time. Clearing it is harmless; the files just download again.
- Cookies keep you signed in and remember preferences. Clearing them signs you out of that site.
- Site data covers everything else a site stores in the browser, such as local storage and offline data. Clearing it resets the site to a first visit.
Can I clear just the cache and keep the cookies for one site?
Not from Chrome’s menus on Android: the per-site option removes cache and cookies together. If staying signed in matters, use the main Clear browsing data screen with only Cached images and files ticked and a short time range, as described above.
Is there a quicker way to check the latest version of a page?
Open it in an Incognito tab. Incognito starts with an empty cache, so you see the fresh version without clearing anything.
I cleared the cache and still see the old version. Why?
The old copy is probably cached on the server or a CDN such as Cloudflare, not in your browser. Purge it there, or use the cache-busting approach below so new files always get a new URL.
The Real Fix: Cache Busting
The best long-term solution is to make this a non-problem in the first place. If you append a version string or content hash to your CSS filename, browsers will always treat it as a new file and fetch it fresh – no cache clearing required.
The simplest approach is a query string:
<link rel="stylesheet" href="styles.css?v=2">Even better, use a content hash (most build tools like Vite and Webpack can do this automatically):
<link rel="stylesheet" href="styles.abc123.css">With a hash in the filename, you get the best of both worlds: aggressive long-term caching for unchanged files, and instant updates when anything changes.