How to clear your dns cache

You have told me to "clear my dns cache" on my computer. What does this mean?

There has probably been some change to your domain name records and you are looking at an old version of your site or it looks like your domain is not working or your ISP is serving you some old dns records.

This may occur in the following situations:

1. When a web site is moved from one server to another
2. If your domain name has expired and has just been renewed
3. Your ISP is caching pages to save money.
4. Your browser caches a copy of the old server ip

The internet is a complex array of networked servers all interconnected to each other, each one holding different types of information about addresses on the internet. Sometimes when a change is made on a dns server, the change is not filtered down to your local computer automatically, so the effect is that your computer looks in the wrong place resulting in confusion.

To clear your dns cache on a Windows  8 machine

1. Press Win+X to open the WinX Menu.
2. Right-click on Command Prompt and select Run as Administrator.
3. Enter the following command: ipconfig /flushdns
4. If the command was successful, you will see the following message: Windows IP configuration successfully flushed the DNS Resolver Cache.

If the cache is not cleared then you may need to clear your browser cache instead or even restart your computer.


To clear your dns cache on a windows pc which has a start button in the bottom left

1. Close any web browsers you have open
2. Open Start > Run
3. Enter ipconfig /flushdns 
4. Click OK
5. You will see a dos window open momentarily
6. Open your web browser, dns cache should be cleared now

If the cache is not cleared then you may need to clear your browser cache instead or even restart your computer.


To clear your dns cache on OSX

You will need to do this through the "terminal program which is a dos utility program.

First, open Terminal (usually located under Applications > Utilities)

Then, depending on your OSX version, type (or copy and paste) one of the commands below.

For OSX Capitan + Catalina

sudo dscacheutil -flushcache; sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder; say YOUR DNS CACHE IS FLUSHED

For OSX Yosemite

sudo discoveryutil mdnsflushcache

OS X Mavericks, Mountain Lion, and Lion

sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder

Mac OS X v10.6

sudo dscacheutil -flushcache

 

You might be prompted for your password. Enter the password and click OK.

DNS cache should be cleared. Now you can open web browser.

If the cache is not cleared then you may need to clear your browser cache instead or even restart your computer.

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