How to Clear the Cache in Google Drive and Docs

Google Drive and Google Docs are cloud-based services that offer a seamless user experience. To enhance this experience, it’s important to clear out the cache of these platforms regularly.

Google Drive and Docs can sometimes have issues. This can range from problems with offline functionality to the apps not loading at all. Clearing the cache is often the best solution for these issues. However, clearing the entire cache in Chrome is not recommended because it would delete data for all the websites you have visited, which can be annoying. Instead, you can clear the cache specifically for Google Drive and Docs in Chrome. Here’s how to do it.

If you’re using Android, you’ll learn how to clear the caches for Google Drive and Docs Play Store apps.

Clear Drive and Docs Cache in Chrome

Deleting the caches in Google Chrome for Drive and Docs is easy if you know how. This is useful when you have problems making files available offline or if the web apps are not functioning properly. To resolve issues with improperly cached documents, it is a good idea to clear the caches for both Drive and Docs.

However, be cautious and ensure that any offline files you were working on are synced online before proceeding. You can do this by briefly opening the Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides web apps. If you have connectivity issues, consider copying and pasting your work elsewhere to avoid losing it.

To address improperly cached documents, clear both Drive and Docs caches. To do this, open the web app in Chrome and click the padlock symbol in the upper-left corner of the address bar. Select “Site Settings” from the menu. In the Chrome Settings panel that appears, go to the Usage section and click “Clear Data.” Confirm by clicking “Clear Data” again. This will remove all locally cached content, including cookies, for the web app in question.

To perform this method, input the following URLs into the address bar and press Enter:

chrome://settings/cookies/detail?site=drive.google.com

For Google Docs, Slides, and Sheets:

chrome://settings/cookies/detail?site=docs.google.com

You will see a screen that lists cached content related to the web app. Click Remove All.

After clearing the cache for Drive or Docs, reload the web app. You won’t need to log back in since both apps use universal Google cookies for sign-in.

Note: If clearing the caches for Drive and Docs doesn’t help, try clearing the entire Google Chrome cache.

Clear Cache — Android

On Android, the Google Drive and Google Docs apps have options to clear their document caches. Do this if you have trouble accessing or working on documents. Before clearing the caches, be connected to the internet so any offline work you’ve completed syncs to the cloud.

Android’s system-based cache-clearing controls can also resolve app issues like crashes or UI anomalies.

The procedure to clear the document caches in Google Drive, Docs, Slides, and Sheets is the same. Here are the steps:

1. Open the respective app (Google Drive, Docs, Slides, or Sheets).

2. Open the app menu by tapping the three-stacked lines on the upper-left corner.

3. Tap Settings.

4. Under the Documents Cache section, tap Clear Cache.

5. Tap OK to confirm.

Clear App Cache

To clear app caches on Android devices, the steps vary depending on the device type. Here are the general steps you can follow:

Step 1: Open the Settings app on your Android device. Then, tap Apps & Notifications and select Apps.

Step 2: Tap the Drive, Docs, Sheets, or Slides apps. Afterwards, tap Storage.

Step 3: Clear Cache. The cache for the Google app is cleared. Launch the app, and it will start caching fresh data.

What About iOS?

iOS efficiently manages app caches, so manual clearing of app caches, which can be done in Android, is not available. Unfortunately, the Google Drive, Docs, Sheets, and Slides apps do not have built-in options to delete their document caches.

Although iOS has its own cache management, certain apps, such as OneDrive, allow you to clear their caches. However, Google has not implemented this feature yet.

If you encounter any issues with a Google app on iOS, force-quitting the app and restarting your device will typically resolve them. If the issues persist, uninstalling and reinstalling the app may be necessary.

Take Out the Trash

Google’s productivity apps are amazing to use. Outdated and redundant files accumulated over time cause issues, so clearing the cache is an easy fix.

Next: After fixing Google Drive and Docs, you can use these add-ons to boost productivity.