Cookies are small text files that websites save to your computer through your web browser. They are essential for modern internet browsing because they are how a website remembers who you are. Cookies are what keep you logged into your email account and remember the items you placed in your Amazon shopping cart.
However, cookies can sometimes become corrupted, causing a specific website to crash, display formatting errors, or refuse your login attempts even when you have the correct password. In these situations, IT support will often tell you to “clear your cookies.” The problem is, clearing all your cookies logs you out of every single website on the internet. Fortunately, Google Chrome allows you to act like a surgeon and delete the cookies for one specific, malfunctioning website without affecting the rest of your browsing.
How to Clear Cookies While on the Website
If you are currently looking at the website that is glitching, this is the fastest way to clear its specific data.
- Open Google Chrome and navigate to the problematic website (e.g.,
netflix.com). - Look at the address bar at the top of the browser. To the immediate left of the website URL, you will see a small icon (usually a padlock or a settings slider icon). Click it.
- A drop-down menu will appear. Click on Cookies and site data (or simply “Site settings” depending on your Chrome version).
- Click on Manage cookies and site data.
- A window will pop up showing the specific cookies that Netflix has saved on your machine. Click the small Trash can icon next to the domain name.
- Click Done.
Finally, click the Refresh button on your browser. The website will load completely fresh, as if you had never visited it before, which usually resolves any underlying login or formatting glitches.
How to Clear Cookies via the Settings Menu
If a website is completely broken and refuses to load at all, preventing you from clicking the padlock icon, you must hunt down its cookies in the main Settings menu.
- Click the three vertical dots (the menu icon) in the top-right corner of Chrome.
- Select Settings.
- In the left-hand sidebar, click on Privacy and security.
- Click on Site settings.
- Under the “Recent activity” or “Permissions” section, click on View permissions and data stored across sites.
- You will now see a search bar at the top right of the screen. Type in the name of the problematic website (e.g., “Netflix”).
- Chrome will filter the list to show only the data associated with that specific site.
- Click the Trash can icon next to the website’s name.
- Click Clear on the confirmation prompt.
Your session data for that specific website is now destroyed, while all your other logins across the internet remain perfectly intact.