How to Clear Cache and History in Yandex Browser on Windows

What Yandex Browser keeps on your drive

Yandex Browser is built on Chromium, so its profile follows the same layout as its relatives. Everything sits under %LOCALAPPDATA%\Yandex\YandexBrowser\User Data\Default: visits in the History database, cached pages in the Cache folder, cookies in Network\Cookies, encrypted so only this copy of the browser can read them. The cache is the biggest grower — a year of active use easily leaves a gigabyte or two behind, which is why clearing it is the first move when the C: drive runs short.

Yandex Browser's wording differs from Chrome's, and it confuses people at first. What other browsers call history, its clear-history dialog calls Page views; Downloads is only the list, not the files; and cache goes by Files in cache. Passwords, cards and autofill live outside the dialog entirely and are managed in Settings.

• Page views — the visit history you see on browser://history; address-field suggestions draw from it
• Downloads — the download list only; the files themselves stay in their folders
• Cookies and other site data — sessions, carts and site settings; clearing them signs you out
• Files in cache — offline copies of pages and their assets; the first revisit loads a little slower

Clearing history and cache, step by step

Click the menu button — the three stripes in the top-right corner — and go to History → Clear history, or press Ctrl+Shift+Del, or open Settings (browser://settings) and use the Clear history button in the History section. In the dialog, choose the period: for the last hour, for the last day or from the very beginning. Tick the four items and click Clear — the operation takes a few seconds regardless of how much has piled up.

One nuance worth knowing: if Yandex account sync is on, the same history lives on Yandex servers and on other connected devices, and clearing this PC clears only this PC. Also note the browser can keep running in the background after you close the window — right-click its tray icon and choose Exit before deleting %LOCALAPPDATA%\Yandex\YandexBrowser\User Data\Default\Cache by hand. Otherwise the locked files will simply refuse to go.

When clearing helps — and when it doesn't

Clearing is the right move before handing the PC to someone else — choose from the very beginning and tick everything you want gone. It also helps when a site shows a stale, broken version of itself, or when the disk needs room. The cache rebuilds itself within a day of normal browsing, so there is nothing to maintain afterwards; the first visits to familiar sites just load a touch slower while it refills.

It is not, however, a speed button. If the browser feels slow with a handful of tabs, the usual suspects are heavy extensions, dozens of background tabs or a packed Windows drive — clearing history changes none of that. Treat it as maintenance on a schedule of every month or two rather than a cure for every hiccup.

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