How to Clear Your Cache on Kodi – An Easy How-To Guide

Have you been experiencing slowdowns and glitches while using Kodi?  If so, it may be time to clean your cache.  Cache files are temporary bits of data that can clog up your system over time.  Keep reading for a brief tutorial that will show you how to quickly clear your cache on Kodi.

Why clear your cache?

Cache is usually a good thing.  Without cache, Kodi would have to download the same bits of information every time you use your favorite addons.  However, over time accumulated cache can slow your system down.  If you run out of disk space, Kodi will start behaving erratically.
If you use Kodi on a device with a large hard drive (laptop, desktop, etc.) you probably don’t need to worry about clearing your cache.  But if you use Kodi on a small streaming device (like Roku Streaming Stick, for example) you should definitely clear your cache on a regular basis as you might find Kodi not working the way you want it to.  Devices with small hard drives fill up much faster compared to devices with large hard drives.

5 different types of Kodi cache

There are 5 main types of Kodi cache: video cache, addon cache, android application cache and image cache.

1.  Video cache

In order to make your video experience smoother, Kodi saves a few seconds of video before your stream begins to play.  The video gets saved temporarily to your RAM (Random Access Memory).
There’s no need to clear your video cache because it never gets saved permanently.  When you stop watching the video, it disappears.

2.  Addon cache

Some addons create their own specific cache folders in order to save bits of data for later use.  The data could include wallpaper backgrounds, menus, logos and other resources.  Most addons are programmed to delete their cache automatically.  However, some do not.  In order to clean up after addons that do not clean up after themselves, you need to use some type of cache cleaning utility.

3.  Android application cache

If you use Kodi on an Android device, you may need to clean up the android application cache folder every once in awhile.  Unlike most types of cache, android application cache folder doesn’t accumulate over time and clog up your hard drive.  However, the files inside the folder can become corrupt.  If you delete the android application cache using some type of cache cleaning utility, Kodi will automatically replace the files in this folder with fresh new ones the next time you load Kodi.

4.  Image cache

Whenever Kodi reaches out to “scraper” databases, the album art and DVD covers that it downloads get saved into the image cache folder.  Image cache files are compressed so that they don’t take up much space.  However, if you have a massive collection of video or music files on your device there’s a chance that your image cache is in need of a cleanup.

5.  Temp files

The temp files directory is sort of a garbage bin where all Kodi’s miscellaneous files go.  If you use subtitles or extract zip or rar files, your temp files will slowly fill up over time.  Also, sometimes old versions of addons get dumped here.

Tools of the trade

For whatever reason, the base version of Kodi lacks a built-in cache cleaning feature.  There’s no way to adjust your cache settings without manually editing Kodi’s advancedsettings.xml file.

Fortunately, there are a few useful 3rd party tools you can use if you’d rather not go through the complicated process of editing Kodi’s configuration files.  Two of the best cache cleaners out there now are Indigo and Ares Wizard.

Indigo

 

To clear cache in Indigo, just click maintenance tools from the main menu.  From there, you can clear your cache, packages, thumbnails and crash logs.  You can also program Kodi to clear your cache automatically or enable debugging mode, among other options suited to fixing Kodi issues.
If you try everything and Kodi still doesn’t work the way you want it to, you can choose wipe addons to go back to the base version of Kodi.

How to install Indigo

• Download the Indigo installation file.  Go to http://fusion.tvaddons.ag/begin-here/ and download the file named plugin.program.indigo[VERSION].zip
• Install the Indigo installation file.  Click the addons sidebar menu from the main screen of Kodi.  Then, click the box icon on the top left side of the screen.  Next, choose “install from zip file.”  Finally, navigate to wherever you saved plugin.program.indigo[VERSION].zip and open it.

  Credit to https://addonhq.com/clear-cache-kodi/