← Tutorials

How to Clear the Cache in Joomla

Maintenance · Joomla 4, 5, 6 · Updated June 1, 2026

✅ Verified on Joomla 5.4.6: the Maintenance → Clear Cache screen and its labels match the live admin.

If a change you made isn’t showing on the site, or after updating an extension, clearing Joomla’s cache is the first thing to try.

Clear the cache from the admin

  1. Go to System.
  2. Under Maintenance, click Clear Cache.
  3. Select the cache items (or use Check All) and click the Delete toolbar button to remove them.

There’s also Clear Expired Cache, which only removes cache files that are no longer current — handy as routine housekeeping (current cache files are kept).

If the site is broken and you can’t log in

You can clear the cache manually over FTP by deleting the contents of the cache/ and administrator/cache/ folders (delete the files inside, not the folders themselves).

Still seeing old content?

  • You may also have a third-party caching/CDN layer (e.g. a page-cache plugin or Cloudflare) — purge that too.
  • Check System → Global Configuration → System to see if System Cache is on and at what lifetime.