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On my iPad, the StackExchange app is using over half a Gigabyte. Really? Is that necessary? Can we have an option to flush cached data?

I tried the option to clear the cache (in the Settings app, as suggested by @JAL in his/her answer). On the next app launch it sat at a dark blue, empty screen for about 20 seconds then quit. At the next launch it came up, but the storage usage went down by only 2%, from 653MB to 640MB.

I even tried a force reboot after that (hold power/home until poweroff->AppleLogo->poweroff) but that had no effect.

App Settings

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  • No idea what would have gotten the storage that high or why clearing the cache didn't help. I'll audit the cache clearing functions to see if I missed anything.
    – Brian Nickel
    Feb 1, 2017 at 16:33
  • @BrianNickel This has been a problem for quite a while. A couple of months ago I uninstalled and reinstalled the app, and that reduced the size significantly, but I forget what the baseline size was. I'll try that again later today and post the results.
    – Ex Umbris
    Feb 1, 2017 at 16:55
  • I had similar storage (~630MB) and clearing the cache instantly brought it down to ~50MB
    – Cai
    Feb 2, 2017 at 16:59
  • Hmmmm... i just tried clearing the cache on my iphone and when I relaunched it did not auto close the first time. I suspect it actually crashed on my ipad. I'll retry clearing the ipad cache later today.
    – Ex Umbris
    Feb 2, 2017 at 17:35
  • @BrianNickel Seems like the crash prevented clearing the cache the first time (see my last comment on JAL's answer). Is any diagnostic info recorded for an app crash that you would like to receive?
    – Ex Umbris
    Feb 2, 2017 at 23:31
  • Mine had got to over 500 Mb, I deleted the app and downloaded it again and it's under 50 Mb now.
    – Notts90
    Mar 12, 2017 at 13:59

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
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There is already an option to clear the local cache in the Stack Exchange app-specific settings:

Settings

Just terminate the app from multitasking and launch it again for the setting to take effect.

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  • Thanks, I just tried this. See my update to the question.
    – Ex Umbris
    Jan 31, 2017 at 23:53
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    Shouldn't this be something that is managed automatically by the app? 640MB seems a bit... excessive, even for a cache.
    – user102937
    Jan 31, 2017 at 23:53
  • I was never able to get the iOS app documents and data that high, it always stayed under 200 mb for me.
    – JAL
    Feb 1, 2017 at 0:00
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    @RobertHarvey You would be surprised. Many third party libraries have their own caches with high limits. Integrate with a few dependencies that have 200+ mb caches, it adds up. Note that I'm not defending the large size, but storage is cheap.
    – JAL
    Feb 1, 2017 at 0:02
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    Not on a iPad, it isn't. I could store nearly a hundred e-books in that same space. Or nearly as many songs.
    – user102937
    Feb 1, 2017 at 0:03
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    Whoever downvoted, I don't think this post deserves a downvote.
    – Ex Umbris
    Feb 1, 2017 at 16:56
  • @ExUmbris It's clear that someone did not find my answer useful. I'll keep it around for another day or so but if the community does not feel like it adds value I might as well just delete it...
    – JAL
    Feb 2, 2017 at 0:05
  • Here's a pity upvote, merry philosophically incorrect Christmas!
    – Jason C
    Feb 2, 2017 at 1:11
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    My storage was up to ~630MB, clearing the cache brought it down to ~50MB (I agree there should be some auto-management of this, storage on iDevices isn't cheap and I'm in a constant never ending battle to free up space!)
    – Cai
    Feb 2, 2017 at 17:04
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    This is the correct answer after all. It appears when I tried this solution originally, the app crashed during the launch where it should have cleared the cache. Retrying the cache clearing was successful the second time, and reduced storage to 50MB.
    – Ex Umbris
    Feb 2, 2017 at 19:07
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    @ExUmbris so glad to hear it!
    – JAL
    Feb 2, 2017 at 19:11

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