Cache and Cookies

Question

Level 1

76 points

Cache and Cookies

First of all, what are the cache and cookies. And what will happen if I delete them all. This goes to say also on any computer as well as the iPhone. Thanks in advance!

-thealexness

MacBook, 8G iPhone, Logitech V320 Mouse, QuickTime Pro, Mac OS X (10.5.2), 2.16 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 1GB of DDR2 SDRAM, 160 GB 5400-rpm hard drive

Posted on Apr 14, 2008 6:27 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

abellan

Level 4

1,235 points

Apr 14, 2008 6:30 PM in response to thealexness

A cookie is a piece of data that a website puts on iPhone so the website can remember you when you visit again. That way, webpages can be customized for you based on information you may have provided.

The browser cache stores the content of pages so the pages open faster the next time you visit them. If a page you open isn't showing new content, clearing the cache may help.

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Answer 2

thealexness Author

Level 1

76 points

Apr 14, 2008 6:47 PM in response to abellan

So, a cookie is like the "thing" that stores your email address or address or something on a website, so if you visit it regularly, you don't have to type it in again the next time you visit? So that brings me to another question. How does a computer/iPhone determine when to establish a cookie and can this be turned off. Like if you type in your information once, it will be on that page every time you visit (even if you only visit that webpage once in your whole life)? And what if you type in valuable information, and you let a friend borrow your computer or something, and you don't want him/her seeing that info, can you turn cookies off (I know you could just clear them but...)?

Does the browser cache store the content of every page I visit? Wouldn't this take up a of of memory...like I had thousands and thousands of bookmarks on my computer?

Thanks for the quick reply!

-thealexness

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Answer 3

AKRBTN

Level 6

8,311 points

Apr 15, 2008 3:25 AM in response to thealexness

It is a good idea to clear the cache from time to time or you will get Safari crashes more and more frequently. A reset of the phone clears the cache among other things but you can do it by going into Settings>Safari and clearing the cache (also the history and cookies if you want to).

You can also use settings to never accept cookies if you want to. But that probably would mean signing into passworded content every time. If you were going to lend the phone to anyone I would clear the cookies, history and cache if I were you - although I think things like bank accounts require everytime logins anyway.

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Answer 4

thealexness Author

Level 1

76 points

Apr 15, 2008 8:48 AM in response to AKRBTN

Does a full reboot also clear history and cookies?

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Answer 5

Apr 15, 2008 8:49 AM in response to thealexness

No.

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Answer 6

thealexness Author

Level 1

76 points

Apr 16, 2008 5:41 PM in response to thealexness

So back to my second post...

Can you turn cookies off (I know you could just clear them but...)?

Does the browser cache store the content of every page I visit? Wouldn't this take up a of of memory...like I had thousands and thousands of bookmarks on my computer?

Thanks in advance!

-thealexness

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Answer 7

Apr 16, 2008 5:52 PM in response to thealexness

You can turn cookies off in Settings/Safari. Cookies are placed by the web site on your computer so they can "remember" what you were doing. (It's called "maintaining context" in computer jargon). However, any site that needs to remember content from one page to another needs cookies. So if you turn cookies off a lot of sites won't work for you. Cookies are also used for less savory purposes, such as tracking your web browsing habits to better target you with ads.

The Cache does not store all of your bookmarks; it stores copies of pages you have visited recently (usually in the past couple of days). It does this so it will not have to reload the page if you go back to it after a short while. The Cache is completely separate from Cookies.

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