This site will have limited functionality while we undergo maintenance to improve your experience. If an article doesn't solve your issue and you want to ask a question, we have our support community waiting to help you at @FirefoxSupport on Twitter and/r/firefox on Reddit.

Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

Clearing the Cache should Delete all subfolders which are found inside "Cache" & "Offline Cache" folders in the profile directory

  • 3 replies
  • 4 have this problem
  • 10 views
  • Last reply by Hasan

more options

I think this is applicable to all other Operating Systems & Firefox versions as well (although i have not checked the status of this issue on other platforms)

I have filed a Bug for this -> https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=968764

Steps to reproduce:

Cleared browser cache using following methods: 1) Firefox button -> Options -> Network -> click "Clear Now" button 2) Firefox button -> History -> Clear Recent History or CTRL + SHIFT + DEL -> select "Cache" & "Offline Website Data" with "Time range to clear" set to "Everything"

Actual results:

Cache cleared but Firefox does not Delete any of the many subfolders which are created in the "Cache" & "Offline Cache" folders

Expected results:

Cache cleared and Firefox should have Deleted all subfolders in the "Cache" & "Offline Cache" folders

I think this is applicable to all other Operating Systems & Firefox versions as well (although i have not checked the status of this issue on other platforms) I have filed a Bug for this -> https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=968764 Steps to reproduce: Cleared browser cache using following methods: 1) Firefox button -> Options -> Network -> click "Clear Now" button 2) Firefox button -> History -> Clear Recent History or CTRL + SHIFT + DEL -> select "Cache" & "Offline Website Data" with "Time range to clear" set to "Everything" Actual results: Cache cleared but Firefox does not Delete any of the many subfolders which are created in the "Cache" & "Offline Cache" folders Expected results: Cache cleared and Firefox should have Deleted all subfolders in the "Cache" & "Offline Cache" folders

Modified by Hasan

All Replies (3)

more options

hello, what benefit would it have to clear the empty folder structure, when firefox would have to recreate the whole thing the next time it is caching an item (which would probably slow down the process at first)?

also see bug 597224.

more options

Thanks for replying Philipp and mentioning bug 597224.

The initial thought is that the "Cache" & "Offline Cache" folders' sub-directories are not used after the cache is cleared. New subfolders are created according to the need of a user's usage of cache and cache size. So the subfolders remain empty/unused for forever unless a user decides to Delete them manually. But most of the average users won't do so in fear that it will messup with their Firefox.

Firefox already deletes all cache files when the cache is cleared. Wouldn't it be better to keep the system clean from unused folders as well ??

This is a suggestion to add with the Clear Cache feature to keep the system clean from unused files & folders.

Modified by Hasan

more options

A little more on the context:
I checked that after clearing my cache, there were around 300 empty & unused directories in the "Cache" folder and some in the "Offline Cache" folder.

This is the point i have raised by posting this question & filing the bug (mentioned above).