How Do I Clear My Local DNS Cache?

DNS resolves domain names to IP addresses so people do not have to remember a series of numbers (IP addresses) when trying to visit a website. In order the speed up this process and reduce the traffic on the DNS servers, most computer operating systems will store or cache DNS lookups on your computer locally. At times, you may need to clear the cache to see changes.

In this tutorial, we’ll show you how to clear the DNS cache for the major operating systems on the market. Typically, this process is referred to as clearing or flushing the local DNS cache.

Flushing Local DNS Cache in Windows

Open the command line window, and depending on your version of Windows, this can be done in one of the following ways:

• Windows 11:
  • Click the search box on the taskbar
  • Type PowerShell in the search box
  • Click the Windows PowerShell app to open it
• Windows 10:
  • Click on the Start Menu
  • Type cmd in the search box
  • Click the Command Prompt app to open it
• Windows 7 and Vista:
  • Click on the Start Menu
  • Type cmd in the search box
  • Right-click on cmd in the program search results and choose Run as Administrator.
• Windows 98/NT/2000/XP
  • Click on the Start Menu
  • Select Run
  • Type or select cmd to open the command line window

Once the command line window is open type the following command at the prompt and hit enter.

ipconfig /flushdns

After the flushdns is completed, type exit to close the command line window.

exit

Flushing Local DNS Cache in Mac OS

OS X 10.7 and above

• Open a Terminal window from Applications > Utilities.
• Type
  

  sudo dscacheutil -flushcache; sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder

  and press Return.
• Close the terminal window.

OS X 10.6 and below

• Open a Terminal window
• Type this command and hit Return

  sudo dscacheutil -flushcache

• Close the terminal window

To easily clear the cache on an iOS device, turn on Airplane Mode for 5-10 seconds and turn it back off by going to Settings > Airplane Mode. Alternatively, you can reboot your phone.

Flushing Local DNS Cache in Linux

Flushing the local DNS cache on Linux depends on which service handles your DNS caching. Typical services include systemd-resolved, nscd, dnsmasq, or BIND. Below are the typical methods for each:

To clear the cache on an Android device, open Chrome, tap the three vertical dots at the top-right corner, choose History, and then tap Clear browsing data.

1. systemd-resolved (Ubuntu 18.04+, many modern distributions)

If your system uses systemd-resolved, you can flush the DNS cache with:

sudo systemd-resolve --flush-caches

To confirm that your system is using systemd-resolved, check:

systemctl is-active systemd-resolved

and/or verify that /etc/resolv.conf is managed by systemd-resolved.

2. nscd (Name Service Cache Daemon)

If you have nscd (Name Service Cache Daemon) installed:

sudo systemctl restart nscd

or on older (SysVinit) systems:

sudo service nscd restart

If nscd is not installed, you can typically install it on Debian/Ubuntu with:

sudo apt-get install nscd

and on Fedora/CentOS/RHEL with:

sudo yum install nscd

3. dnsmasq

If you are running dnsmasq as a local DNS server/cache, restart it:

sudo systemctl restart dnsmasq

or on older systems:

sudo service dnsmasq restart

4. BIND

If you’re using BIND as a caching DNS server, you can clear the cache by running:

sudo rndc flush

If you want to flush only specific domain entries, you can use:

sudo rndc flushname example.com

5. NetworkManager (alternative approach)

Some Linux distributions (notably Ubuntu or Fedora) will also leverage NetworkManager for DNS settings. You can try:

sudo systemctl restart NetworkManager

This doesn’t directly flush a DNS cache if you don’t have a dedicated caching service running, but it may reset DNS-related states.

Checking Which Method Applies

Check if systemd-resolved is active

systemctl is-active systemd-resolved

Check if nscd is running:

systemctl status nscd

Check if dnsmasq is active:

systemctl status dnsmasq

Pick the flush method based on which service is actually in use.