How to Clear Site Data and Local Storage in Google Chrome

Whenever you log into a website or adjust your preferences (like choosing a “Dark Mode” theme), the website needs a way to remember who you are and what you selected so you don’t have to repeat the process every time you visit. Historically, websites used small text files called “Cookies” to achieve this. Modern web applications, however, increasingly rely on a more robust technology called “Local Storage” (or Site Data). While this makes web apps faster, corrupted Local Storage data can cause a website to crash, freeze, or loop endlessly. If a specific website is broken in Google Chrome, clearing its site data is the ultimate troubleshooting step.

How to Clear Site Data for a Single Website

If only one specific website is malfunctioning (e.g., Netflix won’t load, but YouTube works fine), you should only delete the data for that specific site. Wiping your entire browser cache will unnecessarily log you out of everything else on the internet.

1. Open Google Chrome and navigate to the website that is causing problems.
2. Look at the address bar at the top of the screen. Just to the left of the URL (e.g., https://www...), click the Padlock icon (or the View site information icon, which looks like two toggle switches).
3. In the dropdown menu that appears, click on Site settings. This will open a new Chrome settings tab dedicated exclusively to that specific domain.
4. At the very top of this new page, under the “Usage” section, you will see exactly how much Local Storage data the site is consuming.
5. Click the Clear data button.
6. A confirmation popup will warn you that you will be signed out of the website. Click Clear to confirm.

Return to the broken website and refresh the page. The site will generate a completely fresh, uncorrupted set of Local Storage data.

How to Clear Site Data Using Developer Tools (Advanced)

If you are a web developer or if the standard settings menu fails to clear a stubborn Service Worker, you can surgically manage site data using Chrome’s Developer Tools.

1. Navigate to the problematic website.
2. Press F12 on your keyboard (or right-click anywhere on the page and select Inspect).
3. In the Developer Tools panel that opens, click on the Application tab at the top. (If you don’t see it, click the >> overflow arrows).
4. Look at the left-hand sidebar menu. Under the Storage section, you will see a breakdown of all data types: Local Storage, Session Storage, IndexedDB, Web SQL, and Cookies.
5. To wipe everything at once, click on Storage in the left sidebar, then click the Clear site data button in the main window.
6. Alternatively, you can click on Local Storage, expand the domain name, and manually delete individual key-value pairs to troubleshoot specific code logic.