How to Clear Local and Browser DNS cache

Clearing or flushing the resolver cache both in your web browser, and in your local operating system can help resolve DNS-related issues and refresh DNS records, specially if you have recently added or edited a new resource record, or added or edited a webforwarding (URL redirect) in our system.

Operating Systems

Please follow the procedure depending on your operating system.

Windows 10 and 11

1. Press the Windows key.
2. Type cmd.
3. Right‑click Command Prompt → Run as administrator.
4. In the window that opens, run:

ipconfig /flushdns

This clears the local DNS cache so Windows discards old hostname lookups and fetches fresh DNS information. If you are using an older version of Windows (7, 8, 8.1, Vista, XP), the command is exactly the same; only how you open Command Prompt differs slightly: Open Start menu, search for cmd, Right‑click it → Run as administrator (on XP you may already be admin).

macOS

1. Open Terminal (Applications → Utilities or via Spotlight).
2. Run:

sudo dscacheutil -flushcache; sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder

 3. Enter your admin password when prompted, then press Enter.

 4. There is usually no output; a new prompt line just appears.

Linux

Please search for the specific command depending on your distro. The commands for the most common cases:

sudo resolvectl flush-caches
# or on some versions:
sudo systemd-resolve --flush-caches
 

Browsers

Mozilla Firefox

1. Open Firefox and type "about:networking#dns" in the address bar.
2. Press Enter to access the DNS page.
3. Click on the "Clear DNS Cache" button to clear the resolver cache.

Google Chrome

1. Open Chrome and type "chrome://net-internals/#dns" into the address bar.
2. Press Enter to access the DNS page.
3. Click on the "Clear host cache" button to clear the resolver cache.
4. Then type "chrome://net-internals/#sockets" into the address bar.
5. Click on "Flush socket pools".

The last two steps are recommended in detailed Chrome DNS‑reset instructions because it forces Chrome to drop any open connections that might still reference outdated DNS data. These steps are specially useful when Chrome shows DNS_PROBE_FINISHED_NXDOMAIN or similar errors.

Microsoft Edge

1. Launch Edge and type "edge://net-internals/#dns" in the address bar.
2. Press Enter to go to the DNS page.
3. Click on the "Clear host cache" button to clear the resolver cache.

Opera

1. Launch Opera and type "opera://net-internals/#dns" in the address bar.
2. Press Enter to go to the DNS page.
3. Click on the "Clear host cache" button to clear the resolver cache.

Safari

Safari doesn't have a dedicated "flush DNS cache". Instead, it relies partly on the system's DNS cache. Please follow the directions for macOS described above. If you still would like to clear all website data, then:

1. Open Safari.
2. Go to Safari → Settings → Privacy.
3. Click Manage Website Data….
4. Choose Remove All.

Hosts File

IMPORTANT: Please note that flushing the local DNS cache will not override or remove entries in the hosts file, in case you have edited such file in the past.

Windows: C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts

macOS: /etc/hosts (symlink to /private/etc/hosts)

Linux: /etc/hosts