A common recommendation is to clear the cache/cookies.   For a person who subscribes to numerous forums and has accounts with untold numbers of on-line retailers, does clearing one's cache create any kind of a headache?

I'm on Firefox and I don't clear cookies, but I always clear cache when I purge history. Never caused an issue that I've noticed.

I cleared mine once, had to re enter a bunch of passwords . 

Over worked web lines are common this week to Christmas.  Just clean out ...............Visited site files.............. That does NOT DELETE saved pass words.

Clearing cache works if you're seeing errors.  Not so much for improving speed.  If you're browser is slowing down, I recommend closing the browser, doing the ctrl+alt+delete routine, clicking "task manager", and then manually closing the browser from there.

 

Better yet, reboot your computer.

 

Often times browsers exhibit memory leaks, which can bog them down over time without restarting. Doing the above will clear that.

3 hours ago, desmobob said:

A common recommendation is to clear the cache/cookies.   For a person who subscribes to numerous forums and has accounts with untold numbers of on-line retailers, does clearing one's cache create any kind of a headache?

To be completely honest it's probably not your fault, if it's just been for the last two or three weeks it's probably your provider, check your wifi plan specs, (upload and download speeds) then run a test and see if it matches your plan you bought, if it's slower, and it probably is, give your service provider a call and raise hell, or switch to a different service, they do this all the time to save resources, starting you with your service speeds you bought and start slowly winging it down hoping you won't notice reccomending you to reset your router, or go through B.S loopholes. this is common internet service provider sales tactics, if they don't comply cancel your service, but usually they will say they "fixed" something on their end, allocating more resources to your household 

I just fired up my notebook running Windows.  Same problem, so I guess it is my ISP rather than the Safari browser on my MacBook.

 

Thanks very much for the help and recommendations,

Bob

My son just got his license and took over my old car and I had to buy another. 

 

Buying another car, insuring it and a new driver cleared my cache. Speed is no issue though. ?

When things are slow I go to https://www.speedtest.net and check my Internet speed.   If it’s slow I blame my ISP. If it’s okay,  I blame the website.   I never blame myself for something I did or didn’t do.  ?

Speedtest.net results tell the story:  avg. 2.83mbs download speed and .51mbs upload.  ☹️

 

...and it's currently running much faster than it was this morning.

Have you tried restarting your modem/router?  Every once in a while, that can be helpful.

On 12/18/2021 at 11:19 AM, Chris at Tech said:

Have you tried restarting your modem/router?  Every once in a while, that can be helpful.

 

I did do that, thank you.  It didn't help (but it often does, as you mentioned).

 

It seems that my latest Avast Security didn't play well with the last update of Safari, or vice-versa.  Uninstalling Avast has solved the problem.  Things are faster than they have been in a long time!  I guess Avast was not working well on my Mac.