Understanding Android Phone Cache: What It Means and Why MalwareFox Matters

Are you curious about the cached data on your android phone? Phones are no longer a medium to only make phone calls. You are carrying a personal computer in your hand. Android phones can do many things that we do on our computers. You can browse the internet, watch videos, and can do many things with the help of apps. Every device that connects to the internet creates a cache. In this article, you will know what cached data and its purpose are.

Stay malware-free with reliable antivirus

Don’t compromise your Data and Privacy. TotalAV is a top-notch antivirus program that handles various viruses, trojans, and other malware that may target your devices. It will safeguard your devices and enhance your system performance.

4.9/5

⭐ Editor’s Choice

✔️ Excellent Malware Detection
✔️ Multiple set of Features
✔️ 30 Day Money-Back

Get TotalAV >

Protect your identity and remove Spyware from your Device

DOWNLOAD

Disclaimer: This post includes affiliate links

If you click on a link and make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.

What Is Cached Data?

Cached Data helps the apps of your device to load the services faster. When you use an app, it connects to the server and loads some data to work. The app stores this data locally in your memory, so that the next time when you open it doesn’t have to download it from the server. Getting information from a server takes more time than accessing it from your storage.

The same thing happens when you open a website. Your browser loads images and layout of the sites and stores it as a cache, so next time it can quickly load that website.

Why Is Cached Data Necessary?

Cache helps your Android apps run faster. If apps don’t use catch data, then it has to download repetitive files each time when you access the service. The websites that you use regularly will download whole data from the server if they don’t catch data. Cached data is necessary to perform apps quickly on your device. Cache data increase the loading speed of apps and websites that you use regularly. However, the cache data of the site that you access one time is a waste.

Is Cached Data Harmful?

No, cached data only contains the necessary information to load the website or work of an app. It doesn’t contain malware or virus even if you visited an infected site. So, there is nothing to worry about the cached data. It is not harmful to your device by any means. The only downside of cached data is it consumes your memory.

What Happens when we clear the Cache?

If you remove the cache of an app or a website, it will download it again when you open it. Clearing caches will only increase the accessing time for a few seconds. The app or website will still create the cache the next time you open it. So, if you delete the cache, it is not going to affect the functionality of any app or website. However, some apps that store your progress like the profile as caches may start working from the start and you have to set up all the things again, but it happens only with the poorly written app.

When should I clear the Cached Data?

When any of your apps are not working correctly, you can clear the cached data. If an app is showing an error, then it could be due to faulty cached data. Removing it, force the app to create a new cache that can fix the app. Also, each website and apps you use, create cached data and slowly it fills the storage. On Android, the cached data is well managed, and you don’t need to clear it manually. However, if you have low storage, you can free some cache. You don’t need the cached data of the website that you visited one time.

Difference between Cached Data and App Data

Cached Data and App Data are different things. The cache contains data that helps the app run smoothly. If you clear the cache, it won’t affect the functionality of the app. It will again create the same data when you run the app. While the app data contains necessary information like your credentials, profiles, and your progress.

If you clear the cache of your Facebook app, it will run a little slow and generate the cache again. But if you remove the app data of your Facebook app, the app goes to its initial state like when you download it. If you clear the app data in any offline game app, you will lose your progress in that game.

How to Clear the Cached Data on Android?

With the Android 8.0 Oreo update, Google has removed the option to clear the cache of all apps. Android now automatically manages the cache data. When there is less storage, the system will wipe the cache data of apps that are over their quota. So you don’t need to worry about the memory now. But, if any app is not performing well and you need to clear the cache, then you can do that. You need to delete the cache of that app manually.

Open Settings, then tap on Storage, and now tap on Other Apps.

Now locate the app that you want to clear the cache, tap on it then tap on Clear Cache. Google will remove the cache of that app.

To delete the cache of websites you need to clear the cache of the browser app that you use, in my case it is Chrome.

Discover Answers

Understanding Android Phone Cache: What It Means and Why MalwareFox Matters