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As you probably know Google Chrome has its own internal DNS cache. Is there a way to clear it without having to wait for the time out or close the browser?

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The only reason for me to flush Chrome's DNS cache is because if I don't, I can't access Google. Luckily, Google's not the only search engine out there (or else I wouldn't have found this question) and I only have to deal with Chrome at work. – Nolonar Apr 11 at 9:16

7 Answers

up vote 218 down vote accepted

Navigate to chrome://net-internals/#dns and press the "Clear host cache" button.

Here you can find the documentation of Chrome's net-internals page

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Thanks a lot .. – Mee Oct 26 '10 at 23:03
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Strangely, this only works in one direction. I have a mapping in the hosts file that maps a domain name to the local machine (i.e. to 127.0.0.1), when I remove the mapping and flush the DNS cache in Chrome, it correctly loads the site from the internet, but when I add the mapping again to the hosts file, it still loads the site from the internet. It shows the cached DNS list empty in Chrome after clearing the DNS cache (also cleared the OS cache using ipconfig /flushdns), still, it loads the site from the internet! Seems like a bug. – Mee Oct 28 '10 at 2:14
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Even more annoying, Chrome shows the IP address correctly (127.0.0.1) for that domain in the DNS cache list (after flushing and trying to load the site again), still it loads the site from the internet. – Mee Oct 28 '10 at 2:15
awesome, is there a list of all the chrome://* options anyway does anyone know? – Ian May 13 '11 at 9:18
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@Ian chrome://about – ephemient Sep 24 '11 at 18:47
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"Navigate to chrome://net-internals/#dns" doesn't work in the Google Chrome browser, at least on my system. Looks like this solution maybe works for the Google Chrome OS, but not the Google Chrome browser more generally speaking. For me the link redirects here - http://www.chromium.org/developers/design-documents/network-stack/view-net-internals (very clever those Googlers)

It appears "Empty the Cache" is the better solution. Also note my browser says "Preferences" rather than "Options"

Via http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Chrome/thread?tid=026b6a1d9151a6e3&hl=en

"Go to tools -> options -> Under the hood -> Clear Browsing data and check 'empty the cache' and click on clear browsing data. Yes yes, I know, it is not the DNS cache I would expect it to clear, but hey it seems to. And now it works for me."

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For the record, this solution didn't clear up my particular problem. Hopefully I just need to wait another day for DNS propagation. – PJ Brunet Oct 20 '11 at 8:22
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Confirmed this worked for me, Clear Browsing Data -> Empty the cache. No other method worked. Thanks PJ. – Air Dec 29 '12 at 23:04

This worked for me: Empty and Clear the Disk Cache

In Chrome, click on Wrench icon, and then Options. Go to Under the Hood tab. Click on Clear browsing data button under Privacy section. Select just "Empty the cache" check box, and then click on Clear browsing data button.

This worked immediately - I didn't even have to close the browser.

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This seems to work to force Chrome to recognize changes to the hosts file. – minamhere Jun 26 '12 at 2:39

I tried to flush the DNS cache in so many ways, but nothing worked for me. At last, I planned to change my DNS entry. This trick will work for all people who access Internet through high speed LAN connection.

On a LAN connection, a user is generally provided two DNS addresses. One is primary and another is secondary or alternative DNS address. What I did was that I just changed the secondary address to the primary address and vice-versa. It worked for me instantly.

I kept the alternative DNS address as primary address for two days. The problem solved itself and later, I reinstated the old DNS entry.

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Clicking "clear host cache" in chrome://net-internals/#dns should do it for Chrome, but there's other DNS caches to consider.

Windows:

ipconfig /flushdns

OS X pre-10.7:

sudo dscacheutil -flushcache

OS X 10.7+:

sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder

Your router may be caching the DNS as well (restart it or read the manual). The ultimate test is to use dig, but this uses your network's DNS host, not the authoritative server by default:

dig superuser.com

To query right from the source, try something like:

dig superuser.com @ns1.serverfault.com

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As far as I can find, in recent versions of Chrome (I'm on 26.0.1410.43), there's no (reliable) way to do it, at least not on a Mac. None of the suggestions on this page have worked for me.

My situation is that I've added a hosts file entry, but Chrome is still going to the IP returned by DNS. Firefox works correctly.

In fact, the chrome://net-internals/#dns page is simply lying about the IP address for me. It shows the IP from the hosts entry, but that is clearly not where it's actually getting the site from.

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Same problem here. I have tried clearing cache, clearing the internal DNS cache, ipconfig flush dns, and it is still loading a local website from the live domain. If I open it in "Incognito" it works, or in Firefox it works, but normal Chrome refuses to reset its DNS – andrewtweber Apr 23 at 14:43

try DNS Flusher for Chrome Note that to use it, it requires command line flag --enable-benchmarking when you start the chrome browser.

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