The Corrupted Render Vector
Like all modern browsers, Apple’s Safari downloads and locally caches images, scripts, and CSS stylesheets to accelerate the loading times of your favourite websites. However, if a website developer pushes a flawed update, or if the local cache simply becomes corrupted, Safari will stubbornly continue to load the broken, local files rather than fetching the fresh, working code from the internet. When a webpage refuses to format correctly, destroying this cache is always the first diagnostic step.
How to Empty the Safari Cache
Apple deliberately hides the cache-clearing tools from standard users. You must first unlock Safari’s advanced developer tools before you can execute the purge.
1. Open the Safari application.
2. Look at the absolute top of your Mac’s screen to the main menu bar and click on Safari, then select Settings (or Preferences).
3. Click on the Advanced tab (the icon looks like a gear).
4. Look at the very bottom of this window and check the box labelled Show Develop menu in menu bar.
5. Close the Settings window. You will now see a new menu item called Develop situated between “Bookmarks” and “Window” at the top of your screen.
6. Click on the Develop menu.
7. Scroll down the list and click on Empty Caches (or use the keyboard shortcut Option + Command + E).
Safari will not throw a confirmation prompt or a loading bar; the action is instantaneous and silent. When you reload the broken webpage, Safari will be forced to redownload every single asset directly from the host server.