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How do I clear my temporary internet files?
The Companies Office conserves bandwidth by directing your web browser to store many areas of this site in its local cache (usually on your hard drive); this means these areas are only downloaded once. The result is that pages you have previously viewed, images previously displayed, style sheets, etc can be presented in a quicker timeframe.
Sometimes this can present an undesired or confusing result, or not show older versions of a page you are trying to view. It may also affect your ability to print the web page you are on.
When you encounter odd behaviour, please try instructing your browser to bypass the cache by placing a ? at the end of the website address (for example: www.societies.govt.nz?) and re-selecting Go.
If you continue to experience problems we recommend you clear the entire cache so the browser can check if a newer version of a previously downloaded page is available. See below for instructions on how to clear the cache in the most popular browsers.
After you have cleared the cache if you continue to use an old bookmark (favourite) the problems you have experienced may persist. We recommend that you delete and reset your bookmarks (favourites) to our site.
Internet Explorer
To reload a page and bypass the cache:
- Either hold the Control key, and press F5.
- Or hold the Control key, and select the Refresh button on the toolbar.
To completely clear the cache:
- Click on Tools and then Internet Options and choose the General tab (the grey tabs at the top of your screen). In the Temporary Internet files section, click Delete Files... You will then get a dialogue box asking if you want to delete just the temporary files, or all offline content. Choose the latter and click OK.
To change cache settings:
- Selecting Tools → Internet Options → Temporary Internet files → Settings... allows you to make advanced configuration changes to the cache (only do this if you are reasonably confident of what you are doing).
- There is an option labelled Check for a new version of stored pages select Every visit to the page. This does not bypass the cache, it merely determines how often the browser asks if there is a newer version available.
Mozilla and most subclasses
To reload a page and bypass the cache:
- Either hold down the Control and Shift keys, and press R. On an Apple Mac, use the Command key instead of Control.
- Or hold down the Shift key, and select the Reload button on the navigation toolbar.
To completely clear the cache:
- From the Edit or Tools menu, choose Preferences or Options. Expand the Advanced options and choose Cache or Privacy. Select the button called Clear Cache.
- In new versions of Mozilla Firefox, you can easily clear the cache, history and cookies. Hold down the Control and Shift keys and press Delete (or Del), then choose what you want to remove. Or from the Tools menu, select Clear Private Data.
- For Mozilla Firefox, go to Tools → Options and click on Privacy (picture of a key) in the sidebar of the window that pops up. This will give you the option to clear private data.
