Cache Fix: Fixing A Broken Client Cache With a Sledgehammer (Nietszche would be proud of me!)

When your SL client crashes or the server you are connected to hiccoughs, you can end up with bits of inventory, sounds and textures left in places in the cache where neither you nor your SL client can get to them, and can even break the structure of the cache to such an extent that simply clearing cache doesn't fix it. This can take up space, make your cache much less efficient and even make assets appear to vanish completely.

To repair this, you need to simply delete the cache directory on your computer (directories are sometimes called folders). This is in fact faster than "Clearing Cache" and much more reliable. You need to logout BEFORE you delete the cache directory, and as soon as it has been deleted, you can log back in. Your SL client will see that the cache directory is missing and create a new one.

To delete the directory you need to know where it is. It will always remain in the same place for the same Operating System and User on the same machine, but the location will vary from user to user and machine to machine. To find out where the cache directory is located for you on your computer, simply:

Edit/Preferences/Network as if you were going to clear cache normally.

Look at the location of your disk cache, "Disk Cache Location"

I run under Linux and my cache is in, "/home/hermit/.secondlife/cache", but it will be different on different operating systems and for different users. For a Windows user, it might be, "C:\Documents and Settings\PCNameHere\Application Data\SecondLife\cache" where "PCNameHere" is the name of your computer. On a Macintosh, it is likely in /Users/USERNAME/Library/Caches/SecondLife

Write down the address.

Log out of Second Life.

Now using any handy tool, go to the parent folder and delete the entire cache folder.

So on my computer I go to:

/home/hermit/.secondlife

and delete:

cache

As soon as the cache directory is deleted you can log back in. SL will notice it is missing and create a new one, without any problems.

Notice that this is faster than using the Edit/Preferences/Networking/Clear Cache option.

Regards

Emilie (In World Hermit Barber)
----------------------------------

Canonical Names

Canonical NoteCard Name: Emilie's note on howto repair a broken SL Cache v1.06
Canonical Web Page Name: Fixing A Broken Client Cache With a Sledgehammer (Nietszche would be proud of me!)
Web Page URL: http://emilie.hermit.net/content/fix-a-broken-client-cache-with-a-sledgehammer

----------------------------------

Revision History

1.07 Updated URL to remove Drupal cruft.
1.06 Updated license, removed date, minor grammatical corrections.
1.05 Corrected version number for notecard.
1.04 Added Macintosh information with assistance from Niaht Nakamichi.
1.03 Added note on performance versus conventional cache clearing.
1.02 Minor spelling corrections canonical names and website address added. Order of revision notices changed to most recent first.
1.01 Added sample Windows path with assistance from Lalinda Lovell
1.00 Initial Release Revision

----------------------------------

Copyright: Hermit Barber, 2009, 2010, 2011

Licence:

This work by Hermit Barber (SecondLife) is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License

When quoting or citing this work the attribution must include a link to this page which is where the current version will be available, and the copyright notice provided here must be included in full.