This article explains how to clear the DNS Cache of a variety of operating systems. This is a useful tool to sometimes refresh your DNS cache when you have updated your DNS zone.
Windows 8 and 10
- Press the ⊞ + X (Windows key) to open the WinX Menu.
- Click on the Windows Powershell (Admin)
- Click Yes to the UAC that pops up.
- In the command line, type the following:
ipconfig /flushdns
- If the command was successful you will see
Windows IP configuration successfully flushed the DNS Resolver Cache.
If the message above appears, it means you have flushed the DNS. Please note that this does not always resolve DNS issues like when pinging a website expecting an updated IP address, if it does not and you are certain you have updated the DNS Zone, you will need to wait until the ISP resolvers update which happens daily.
Windows 7
- Click the Start button, in the taskbar (bottom-left)
- Click the Run button on the right (shown in the picture below)
- A dialog box will open (see picture below), in the box type
cmd
and hit the OK button
- In the command line we want to write the following command
ipconfig /flushdnsand then we hit the Enter key.
- If the command was successful you will see
Successfully flushed the DNS Resolver Cache.
If the message above appears, it means you have flushed the DNS. Please note that this does not always resolve DNS issues like when pinging a website expecting an updated IP address, if it does not and you are certain you have updated the DNS Zone, you will need to wait until the ISP resolvers update which happens daily.
Windows XP, 2000 or Vista
Please review Windows 7 above, as it will apply to previous versions down to Windows XP.
macOS (Monterey, Big Sur & other flavors)
- Click the Spotlight search button or use Command + Space to do a search
- Type
terminalin the search bar and locate the terminal icon and click it to open up the terminal (shown in the picture below)
- Once you got the terminal open, you will type the following command for various Mac flavors
Monterey & Big Sur:sudo dscacheutil - flashcache; sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder
After hitting enter, you are asked to insert your password, which you do to execute this command.
El Capitan and newer:sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder
Yosemite:sudo discoveryutil udnsflushcaches
Lion, Mountain Lion, Mavericks:sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder
Snow Leopard:sudo dscacheutil -flushcache
Leopard:sudo lookupd -flushcache
Tiger:lookupd -flushdcache
If the message above appears, it means you have flushed the DNS. Please note that this does not always resolve DNS issues like when pinging a website expecting an updated IP address, if it does not and you are certain you have updated the DNS Zone, you will need to wait until the ISP resolvers update which happens daily.
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