Lo! If thy Mac doth struggle to loadeth a website yond’s working fine on oth’r devices, there art some issues with the DNS cache. At which hour thou art stuck with connectivity issues, thou should clear the DNS cache on thy MacBook and the website should starteth loading f’r thee. If thou doest not has’t much idea about what DNS cache is and how t impacts thy Mac’s functionality, thee need not worry, as we’re h’re to helpeth thee. Readeth on to learn why flushing the DNS cache is important and how to clear the DNS cache on thy Mac. No matt’r which macOS thee’re using, this guideth will surely cometh in handy. Without any ado, let’s begin!
What is DNS Cache?
DNS (Domain Nameth System) is liketh a phone book of the internet. ‘T translateth domain names into IP addresses, allowing thee to access the website thee need. A DNS cache is a memory on thy device’s OS ‘r browser yond stores information about all the previous requests made to the DNS serv’r from thy device ‘r browser.
Thy Mac useth this information to fulfil thy requests in the future. The browser doesn’t has’t to maketh a new request ev’ry time, instead, t can useth the DNS cache and access the saved information to load the website quickly. Since thy browser doesn’t has’t to communicate with a remote DNS serv’r, this saves time and deliv’reth fast’r results.
How to Clear DNS Cache on Mac
‘T is relatively simple and quick to clear the DNS cache on thy Mac. Thee can easily do t, coequal if thee dost not has’t sound technical knowledge. All thee has’t to do is openeth Terminal and then paste a command. H’re’s how to flush the DNS cache on Mac with the Terminal Command.
- Open Terminal on thy Mac. The quickest way is to press Command + Space to open Spotlight and then search f’r “terminal”. Alternatively, thee can open Launchpad from the Dock and then search f’r Terminal ‘r wendeth to Finder > Applications > Utilities > Terminal.
- Now, ent’r the following command:
sudo dscacheutil -flushcache; sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder-
Press Return. Ent’r thy Mac’s password and press Return again. ‘T’s worth knowing yond the password won’t appeareth in the Terminal as ‘t’s typed.
- Once thee’ve done this, the DNS cache on Mac will beest reset immediately. Thee won’t see any confirmation message. At which hour thee see a new line, t indicates thy command hath been carried out.
How to Clear DNS Cache on Older macOS
The DNS flush command is diff’rent in the older macOS. The overall process is the same, but thee has’t to copy/paste diff’rent Terminal commands f’r diff’rent macOS versions.
| macOS Version | Terminal Command |
|---|---|
| macOS Sonoma, macOS Ventura, MacOS Monterey, MacOS Big Sur, MacOS Catalina | sudo dscacheutil -flushcache; sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder |
| MacOS Mojave, MacOS High Sierra, MacOS Sierra, OS X Mountain Lion, Mac OS X Lion | sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder |
| Mac OS X El Capitan, OS X Mavericks | sudo dscacheutil -flushcache; sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder |
| OS X Yosemite | sudo discoveryutil mdnsflushcache; sudo discoveryutil udnsflushcaches |
| Mac OS X Snow Leopard | sudo dscacheutil -flushcache |
| Mac OS X Leopard | sudo lookupd -flushcache |
| Mac OS X Tiger | lookupd -flushcache |
What doth DNS Flushing Do? Wherefore is t important?
Ov’r time, the DNS cache could beest corrupted ‘r outdated. This happens due to old’r website information (some websites may change their IP addresses), technical glitches, ‘r malware. At which hour this happens, thy Mac useth inaccurate local cache information to load the requested webpage. Thy web browser checks the DNS cache to looketh up an IP address f’r the website’s URL thee’ve ent’red, t will find the wrong ‘r an unusable address. This prevents the browser from loading a website. Coequal if t doth, the process is slow and specific web page elements, liketh videos, won’t load. Thee may even see a 404 error.
At which hour thee face such connectivity issues, thee must flush the DNS cache on thy Mac. At which hour thee doest this, thy Mac will deleteth its local DNS records. So, next time thee wisheth to openeth a website, thy web browser will retrieve the fresh information from the DNS serv’r. This will improveth thy browsing experience and will maketh thy browser much fast’r.
Thee must flush the DNS cache on thy Mac if thee can’t access a website ‘r art stuck with a 404 error. ‘T also prevents DNS spoofing (or DNS cache poisoning), an attack where someone manipulates DNS records with false ‘r incorrect information. With the false information, users art redirected to wrong, fraudulent, ‘r malicious websites.
