April 20, 2016

Reminder: Clear your cache

Bugs, Reports, Cache & Flash

Hello from the land of crazy bug people again!  Cemaros, AQW Bug Squasher Extraordinaire, here with a few more reminders for everyone.  So let’s just jump right in and start with the big one.

CLEAR YOUR CACHE!  

Then clear it again.  Then clear it one more time to make sure you actually cleared it.  I recommend clearing about 3 times a week if you play daily. It only takes a few seconds and saves you many hours of frustration.

Yes, I keep reminding everyone about this one because this is the cause of about 90% of the reports we get. A "stuffed cache" not only causes issues with the game, but it will slow your entire browser performance down.

I especially want to remind folks to clear your cache since the Flash 20 update.  We’ve been getting some new types of reports in, and when investigating them, every single one of them has been because of a ….

Guess? Stuffed cache!

For a list of some of the common causes of a stuffed cache, see here: Cache Reminder Design Notes 

Artix Entertainment has nothing to do with the making of Flash, as most of you know.  Our programmers do everything they can to make sure things run smooth, but we can’t actually fix Flash itself.  But YOU can prevent a lot of issues by keeping your cache cleared out regularly. Which brings me to my next reminder.  

Fill out the report form

Every single bug report filed is read. I promise you that.  (I can, since I’m one of two people who reads and sorts them!) However, if you don’t fill out the bug reports entirely, we simply do not have enough information to work with. If you send in a report that looks like this...

There isn’t a single thing we can do with it.  Please!  Fill the forms out completely.  While I do reply to a great many of the reports sent, I can’t reply if I don’t even know what is being reported, right?

Please report from the device and browser you are having the issue on.  The bug report form gathers data about your browser (no personal info!).  In many cases, I need this data to figure out the problem.  So if you play on your Windows laptop on Firefox browser, but you report it from your iPhone, I don’t have correct data.  
So! Everyone is going to clear their cache and fully fill out the forms now, right?  RIGHT!

Below is a list of the most popular browsers and how to clear the cache on each of them.  This guide provides links to the homepages of the various browsers. 

"What's a stuffed cache?" you ask? GOOD question! 

A cache is a place on your computer where the browser (Chrome, Firefox, IE, Safari) keeps things you've downloaded in case they're needed again - like the logo on a website or information about your AQW character. That way, it doesn't need to be downloaded each time you visit the page; as long as the same logo is displayed, your computer already knows what to look for.

Caches have a limit of how big they can be. When a cache gets full, the items in it that haven't been used in a while are discarded to make room for whatever new items you're looking at now.

And it’s all transparent to you... until something breaks! (Like with this bug.) But that's when you need to "clear your cache."

If you have any other issues, please remember to report them to the Bug Tracker! I send emails to the developers every week, and they fix as many as they have time for (starting with the highest priority issues first)!

Thanks!!  ~Cem

Clearing your browser's cache gives you the latest version of the game

When we release BIG new features or fix important bugs, we want you to get the latest version of the game client, which means your browser's cache needs to be emptied of all its current files. Emptying your cache is called "clearing your cache." That lets it get all the new, most up-to-date files so your game works right.

Chrome

Internet Explorer

Firefox

Alternative method: Press down Ctrl+Shift+Delete to open up a browser settings menu.

Opera

• Click "Tools." 
• Select "Delete Private Data..." 
• Click the "Detailed Options" button. 
• Uncheck everything except "Clear Entire Cache." 
• Click "Delete," and restart. 

Safari 6

• Safari -> Preferences -> Privacy -> Details 
• Select site to remove cookies from -> Remove or Remove All 
• Restart Safari 

Safari 6.0.3 (Mac Mini)

• Located Develop option on Toolbar 
• Click Develop 
• Click Empty Caches on list (not the delete caches option) 

Firefox for Mac

• Click "Firefox -> Preferences." 
• Click "Advanced" and select the "Network" tab. 
• Under the "Cashed Web Content" section, click "Clear Now." 
• Restart Firefox. 

Note: If you do not see your browser's version listed here, it is strongly recommended that you upgrade your browser. The latest browsers typically have more features and improved security. 

Be sure to also restart your web browser. So the game page fully reloads, and not just the content files.

Thanks to the Archknights and Moderators on our forum for compiling and updating the guide!