ElI5 why is the ‘cache’ this all powerful crasher of apps and causer of problems? Why does clearing it fix things?
In: 101
A cache is sort of like a computer’s public storage or parking lot; any program can access it, and some programs access it differently than other ones. Heck, even one program will sometimes have different processes that use the cache slightly weird, which then messes it up for the rest of the program. As a bonus, sometimes it’s a [PEBKAC](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/PEBCAK), which can be the hardest of errors to diagnose because the program will assume the ‘error’ is on purpose.
So clearing the cache just resets it all. No second programs making surprise changes, no glitches making small bugs, and no PEBKAC settings making everything messed up. Everything starts fresh. It’s basically a more specialized version of “Did you try turning it off and then on again?” (which has a [wiki page](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_cycling)).
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