how to Clear application cache on iPad

Right, something not many people know..

Open an app, preferably one thats likely to store lots of cache data.

Hold the power button until the power off slider appears.

Then hold the home button until the application quits to the home screen.

Notice the iPad/iPhone will hang for a few seconds.

Now your idevice has been updated to lightning fast iOS again. - Works well with a hard reset also.

FYI~ If anyone still has this issue... @Apple Brad has the best answer I found here and it freed up 1GB of space (I started with only 1.2 GB available). I cleared up about another 1GB by doing this (and it frees up your iCloud storage also):

• Go to "Settings"
• Then "General"
• Then "Manage Storage"
• Under 'Documents & Data" there will be a list of applications that has stored content.
  • Select them 1 by 1, then hit "Edit" in the top-right corner
  • It will then show you items that are saved.
  • You can choose 'Delete All" or only delete the ones you don't want/need by hitting red minus icon which slides to the left and then hit "Delete".

That's is. Then hard reset your device by holding down the power and home button at the same time until it powers off and wait at least 1 min to restart.

My 'trick' is better than your "technique"

The only apps that would have a cache would be browsers like Safari. To clear those cache's you go into Settings, Tap Safari, Scroll down to Clear History and Clear Cookie and Data.

If you have just installed Chrome Open it and Tap the Settings button, the one in the upper right corner that looks like 3 horizontal lines, tap settings, tap clear browsing data.

For Atomic Browser, Tap the settings icon, looks like a gear next to the address bar, tap settings, tap Privacy Options, tap clear all.

Those are the only browsers I have access to right now.

All other apps should clear out what is in the iPads memory when you close them using the instructions Paulcb provided. If the app has been coded properly it should give back all the memory it was using, but not all apps as you know are coded perfectly, others have memory leaks, etc. So the best you can do is, kill all the apps in the multitask drawer nd do a hard restart of your iPad.

If you really want to see what is running on your iPad you can try the SYS Activity Manager apps in the iTunes stores. I use the Plus version because it has a tool that will clear out unused memory.

Not exactly sure what you mean but try this...

Double tap the home button to bring up the Recents List

Tap and hold any icon until they wiggle

Press the red ➖ to delete the desired app from this list.

Press the home twice button when done.

In iOs 5 when you tried to download a large app when on low space, the system automatically cleaned the chache of the apps showing "cleaning..." instead of the name.

Now though it doesn't do it anymore and it is very anoying as instagram facebook twitter and flipboard take almost 1.5 gb on my iphone and I can't install anymore apps.

A solution wuld be to remove and reinstall an app...

If anybody knows a REAL solution please post.

There´s a program named PhoneClean that allegedly cleans iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch cache settings, i have used it on my iPad and recovered 3GB of space, wich reflected on the USE settings, maybe you should give it a try. Only draw bck is no Mac option, only Windows

The only way to clear an apps cache is if the app has a button in it that clears it's cache otherwise the cash could grow quite large. I have some apps that have caches over 1 gig and the "only" way to clear it is to delete it and reinstall it. Apple should make it that "all" app makers should either clear their caches automatically or have a button in each app that can delete it's cache if you wish. Doing what it says above only clears the iPads cache, not the cache in any individual app. Most app cache data is in a folder inside the app itself.

Ah, so this does not clear cache but is simply another method to force close the application. Clearing of cache would actually result in a slight decrease in speed as the application would need to recreate the cache. That's what I want. I want to force the application to recreate the cache from an external source.

I sincerely appreciate the help but, unfortunately, this is not what I'm looking for. As far as I can tell, the only way to clear an application's cache is to uninstall and reinstall. While that's not normally a problem, I would like to keep data and remove cache.

Apple iBrad,

Where did you discover this trick? I want to be certain that it works before passing the info along. Thanks in advance!

AppleiBrad's 'trick' is the old method of shutting down an app before multi-tasking was implemented. The method I mention above should do the same thing. You can safely try either.

I Just used this method and it worked, dont know if it works for all apps but at least it worked for the apps that I wanted

Unfortunately I've spent too much time experimenting with combinations like this myself so i'ts why not many people know about it.

It works because you will notice a speed difference after it has been done lol

>>The only apps that would have a cache would be browsers like Safari<<

That's not necessarily true. A cache, to keep it simple, is just data that has been downloaded once to the app and then stored within it - any app can create a cache - the Facebook app would cache data so the next time you open it, it wouldn't have to make such a heavy API call for your info, a magazine app will cache the latest issue you downloaded, etc. etc. Apple even provides a framework for working with caches, NSCache, and there are several third party frameworks out there.

For the most part there really isn't a built in means to clearing an apps cache on a iPhone/iPad. Closing it out of the multitasking bar just simply shuts it down without remembering it's state so next time you launch it, the app starts from the beginning. But, unless it is coded within to dump the cache on close the cached data will be retained. Some apps, like Google Maps, have a cache limit of 100mbs, others, like Pinterest set no limit and could, theoretically, fill your devices storage.

Some apps provide you with the ability to clear the cache in the settings section of your device. Safari is an example. The Philadelphia Inquirer has an app that won't cache unless you turn that option on.

For apps that offer you no option to clear out on your own or limit the cache, the only way to clear out a cache is to delete the app and reinstall.

Ok, I figured it out folks.

1. Connect the device (iphone/iPad) by the cable to your computer and open Safari on your computer.

2. Go to settings on the device and find Safari, scroll to the bottom where it says Advanced, put web connector on.

3. Now go to you Safari page on your computer, go to Safari preferences, and go to the Advanced menu. Select the box that says "show Develop Menu in menu bar."

4. Now you have two different ways to delete the cache/ address bar history. You can either:

a. Go to the new develop menu on Safari (while still connected by cable) and find your device. Clear cache.

Or

b. Go to your device (doesn't need to be connected anymore) to the website data mentioned above and it will give you ALL of the cache history. Delete what you want.

Hope this helps!