With over a decade of experience in PrestaShop development, I’ve encountered a myriad of issues that can be solved by one simple action: clearing the cache.
Whether you’re a store owner or a developer, you’ve likely faced situations where changes don’t seem to reflect immediately. This is often due to cached data, so today, I’m going to guide you through clearing the cache in PrestaShop versions 1.6, 1.7, and 8.
Why Clear Cache?
Caching is a technique to speed up your website by temporarily storing copies of files and data. However, this can sometimes cause issues when you’re trying to see the changes you’ve made to your site. Clearing the cache can help you see those changes immediately.
Clearing Cache in PrestaShop 1.6
- Admin Panel: Log in to your PrestaShop 1.6 admin panel.
- Navigate to Advanced Parameters: From the sidebar, go to “Advanced Parameters” and then click on “Performance.”
- Clear Smarty Cache: Under the “Smarty” section, you’ll find options to clear the cache. Click on the button that says “Clear Cache.”
- Confirm: A pop-up will appear asking for confirmation. Click “Yes,” and you’re done!
Optional: Manually Clear Cache
If you prefer doing things manually, you can go to the /cache/smarty/compile and /cache/smarty/cache folders and delete all the files except index.php.
Clearing Cache in PrestaShop 1.7
- Admin Panel: Log in to your PrestaShop 1.7 admin panel.
- Navigate to Advanced Parameters: Go to “Advanced Parameters” and then “Performance.”
- Clear Cache: You’ll find a button that says “Clear Cache” at the top-right corner of the page. Click it.
- Confirm: Confirm the action, and the cache will be cleared.
Optional: Manually Clear Cache
For manual clearing, navigate to /var/cache/prod and /var/cache/dev and delete all files except for .gitignore.
Clearing Cache in PrestaShop 8
- Admin Panel: Log in to your PrestaShop 8 admin panel.
- Navigate to Advanced Parameters: Go to “Advanced Parameters” and then “Performance.”
- Clear Cache: In this version, you’ll find a dropdown next to the “Clear Cache” button. You can choose to clear the entire cache or specific types like “Template cache,” “Localization cache,” etc.
- Execute: Click the “Clear Cache” button, and you’re good to go.
Optional: Manually Clear Cache
For PrestaShop 8, navigate to /var/cache/ and delete the appropriate folders based on what you want to clear, such as prod or dev.
Conclusion
Clearing the cache is a straightforward but crucial task for any PrestaShop website. It ensures that you’re seeing the most recent version of your site and can be particularly helpful during development or after making updates to your store. I hope this guide serves you well for PrestaShop versions 1.6, 1.7, and 8. Happy caching—or rather, happy de-caching!
Feel free to drop any questions or comments below; I’ll gladly assist you further.