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How to Clear Your DNS Cache

Last modified: June 17, 2024

Overview

Your DNS cache stores the locations (IP addresses) of web servers that contain web pages which you have recently viewed. If the location of the web server changes before the entry in your DNS cache updates, you can no longer access the site.

If you encounter a large number of HTML 404 error codes, you may need to clear your DNS cache. After you clear your DNS cache, your computer will query nameservers for the new DNS information.

How to clear your DNS cache

Windows®

To clear your DNS cache if you use Windows, perform the following steps:

  1. Click Start or the Windows icon.
  2. In the search text box, enter cmd.
  3. Right-click Command Prompt and select Run as Administrator.
  4. Run the following command: 
    ipconfig /flushdns

If the command succeeds, the system returns the following message:

Windows IP configuration successfully flushed the DNS Resolver Cache.

For more information about the ipconfig command, read Microsoft’s ipconfig documentation.

macOS®

To clear your DNS cache if you use macOS X version 10.10.4 or above, perform the following steps:

Warning:

To run this command, you must know the computer’s administrator account password.

  1. Click Applications.
  2. Click Utilities.
  3. Click Terminal.
  4. Run the following command: 
    sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder

If the command succeeds, the system does not return any output.

ChromeOS

To clear your DNS cache if you use ChromeOS, perform the following steps:

  1. Open a new Chrome tab.
  2. Enter the following address: 
    chrome://net-internals
  3. Hit the Enter key.
  4. From the menu, select DNS.
  5. Click the Clear host cache button.

If the command succeeds, the system will perform any DNS lookups again.

Ubuntu®

To clear your DNS cache if you use Ubuntu, run the following command:

sudo resolvectl flush-caches

If the command succeeds, it will return results with an empty cache.

To clear your DNS cache if you use CentOS or related Linux releases (for example, CloudLinux™ or AlmaLinux OS), run the following command:

systemctl restart nscd

If the command succeeds, the system does not return any output.

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