The Importance of Clearing your Browsing History and Cookies

You use your browser daily to access any number of things on the internet – Facebook, online banking, online purchases, etc.  Your browser tends to hold onto information, and over time this can cause problems with logging in to or loading websites.

It is always a good idea to clear out your cache, or browser history, and clear cookies on a regular basis.  Your privacy is more secure and your browser will work better after performing the clean-up, however, the drawback to this is that your saved user names and passwords will be deleted and you will need to re-enter them.

How to clear browsing history and cookies on DESKTOP COMPUTERS

Chrome:

• Open Chrome.
• In the top right corner of the browser, you will see three dots which indicate a settings menu.
• Click on “More tools” and then select “Clear browsing data”.
• This will open a dialog box to delete your browsing and download history, cookies, cached images and files, saved passwords and more.  Select the appropriate time frame and select “Clear data”.
• Exit/quit all browser windows and re-open the browser.

Microsoft Edge:

• Launch Microsoft Edge.
• From the three dots on the top right corner of the browser window, select “Settings”.
• Open the hamburger menu (three stacked bars) by Settings and select “Privacy, search, and services”.
• Under Clear Browsing Data, select “Choose what to clear”.
• In the dialog box select the appropriate time frame and what you want to clear.  Select “Clear Now”.
• Exit/quit all browser windows and re-open the browser.

Microsoft Internet Explorer:

• Launch Internet Explorer.
• Go to the gear icon on the upper left and select “Internet Options”.
• On the General tab, check the box next to “Delete browsing history on exit” or click the Delete button to instantly get rid of history, passwords, cookies, cached data and more.
• Exit/quit all browser windows and re-open the browser.

Firefox:

• Open Firefox on your computer.
• In the upper right-hand corner of the browser, click the “menu bars,” which look like three parallel lines, and click the “Privacy and Security” tab.
• Scroll down to get to “History”.
• Click the “Clear History” button to select the time frame and what items you would like to clear.  Select “Ok”.
• Exit/quit all browser windows and re-open the browser.

Safari:

• Open Safari.
• Select “Preferences” from the dropdown Safari menu.
• Click on “Privacy,” then on “Manage Website Data.”
• Click on “Remove all” from the dropdown menu.

After going through these steps, should you have trouble with austinbank.com or logging in to your Online Banking account, please contact our Customer Care Center at 1-800-644-9275.