Documentation

SiteWipe — Documentation

Everything you need to know about using SiteWipe.

Overview

SiteWipe is a Chrome extension that clears your browser cache and removes cookies for the current site — without logging you out of everything else. One click, and you're back to a clean slate for that page.

It's built for anyone who finds themselves repeatedly clearing their entire browser history just to fix a page that won't update, or who gets logged out of all their accounts every time they need to clear cache.

How it works

When you click SiteWipe, it clears your browser's cache globally and removes cookies for the current site. Cookies you've marked as protected — like login sessions — are left untouched.

The result: the page reloads fresh, your cache is empty, and you're still logged in.

The three clearing modes

SiteWipe has three modes, accessible from the dropdown arrow next to the main button.

Default

Clear This Tab

Clears the cache and removes all cookies for the current site, except any you've marked as protected. This is the mode you'll use most of the time. After clearing, the page reloads automatically.

Cache only

Clear Cache Only

Clears the cache but leaves every cookie untouched. Use this when you want a fresh page load without affecting any stored session data or preferences.

Nuclear

Clear Everything

Clears everything: cache, cookies, localStorage, IndexedDB, and service workers for the current site. Ignores protection. You will be logged out. SiteWipe asks for confirmation before running this mode — there's a setting to skip it if you prefer.

Why cache clearing is global

Cookies, localStorage, IndexedDB, and service workers are all cleared per site. The cache, however, is cleared globally — meaning all cached files across all sites are removed, not just the ones for the current page.

This is a deliberate trade-off. Chrome's origin-filtered cache clearing (per-site only) has to enumerate the entire cache index, which can take 5 to 15 seconds even on small caches. Global clearing completes in under 100ms.

For a tool you use repeatedly throughout the day, that speed difference matters. The only cost is that other sites you've recently visited will need to re-download their static assets (images, scripts, stylesheets) on the next visit. In practice, this is barely noticeable.

CacheStorage and service workers are still cleared per site, so any PWA-related storage is handled precisely.

Protected cookies

Protected cookies are the reason SiteWipe can clear a site without logging you out.

When you open SiteWipe on a page, it shows a list of all cookies set for that site. Click any cookie to mark it as protected. Protected cookies are highlighted and shown with a lock icon. They're skipped during Clear This Tab — everything else is removed, they stay.

Your protections are saved per domain and synced across all your Chrome browsers via Chrome sync. You don't need to set them up again on another device.

SiteWipe can only keep you logged in if you protect the right cookie first. Before you clear a site for the first time, open the cookie list and mark your session or login cookie as protected. If you clear without protecting it, that cookie will be removed and you'll be logged out — just like a normal clear.

Login cookies are often named things like session, auth_token, _session_id, or similar — but naming varies by site, and sometimes you'll want to clear those too. Protect only the cookies you specifically want to keep, and unprotect them any time by clicking them again.

Protection has no effect on Clear Everything, which removes all cookies regardless.

Keyboard shortcuts

SiteWipe comes with two default keyboard shortcuts that work even when the popup is closed. These are suggestions — if another extension has already claimed them, Chrome won't override it, and the shortcuts won't work. In that case, open the shortcuts manager to assign your own.

AltShiftW
Clear This Tab — cache + unprotected cookies. (Mac: ⌥⇧W)
AltShiftR
Clear Cache Only — leaves all cookies intact. (Mac: ⌥⇧R)

You can change the shortcuts at any time. Open the SiteWipe popup, go to Settings, and click "Customize shortcuts." This takes you to Chrome's built-in shortcuts manager at chrome://extensions/shortcuts.

When a shortcut runs successfully, the SiteWipe toolbar icon briefly shows a badge to confirm the action completed.

Settings

Open Settings from the gear icon in the top-right corner of the popup.

  • Theme — Choose between Light, Dark, or System (follows your OS setting). Default is System.
  • Skip confirmation for Clear Everything — By default, SiteWipe asks you to confirm before running Clear Everything, since it logs you out. Turn this on to skip the confirmation and run immediately.
  • Keyboard shortcuts — Shows your current shortcuts and links to Chrome's shortcut customization page.

What SiteWipe doesn't do

  • It does not clear data for other sites when you use Clear This Tab or Clear Cache Only (except for the global HTTP cache, as explained above).
  • It does not sync cookie protection settings to other browsers — only within Chrome via Chrome sync.
  • It does not work on Chrome internal pages (chrome://, about:, file://). The button is disabled on these pages.
  • It does not make any network requests, track usage, or collect any data of any kind.

Privacy

SiteWipe makes zero network requests. The only data it stores is the list of cookie names you've marked as protected, your theme preference, and your confirmation setting. This data is stored in Chrome's sync storage, which means it follows your Chrome profile across devices but is controlled entirely by Chrome — SiteWipe has no access to it beyond reading and writing your own settings.

There is no analytics, no telemetry, and no tracking of any kind.

Read the full privacy policy →

Why SiteWipe exists

The standard way to clear cache in Chrome is to open Settings, navigate to "Clear browsing data," choose a time range, select what to clear, and click the button — then log back in everywhere. It takes 30 seconds minimum and logs you out of everything.

Developers, designers, and anyone who manages websites end up doing this dozens of times a day. There are other extensions that try to solve this, but most are some combination of ugly, sketchy, or buried under settings and options nobody asked for.

The question that led to SiteWipe was simple: why is this so hard? For the most part, you just need one button. Click it, cache is gone, cookies for that site are wiped, you're still logged in, and the page reloads. That's it.

SiteWipe is the solution that does exactly that.

SiteWipe is built and maintained by Next Page, a web consultancy based in Norway. Questions, bugs, or ideas — ideas@nextpage.no. If you find SiteWipe useful, you can support the work →

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