How to clear Office Word, Excel, PowerPoint cache

If you want to clear web add-ins cache automatically on exit, start, or restart in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, here is how you can do that. There is no need to use third-party apps since these Office apps come with an in-built option to get it done. You need to follow this detailed guide to learn more about web add-ins cache and how you can clear it automatically.

What are web add-ins?

An add-in enhances the performance and enriches the user experience. If an add-in uses a web service to complete a task in any Office app, it is called a Web add-in. You can install and use various web add-ins in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and other Office apps on Windows 11/10. However, if you want to clear the web add-ins cache automatically when you close the app, you must follow this guide.

Note: Here, we have shown the screenshots of Microsoft Excel. However, you can follow the same steps in other Office apps, including Word, PowerPoint, etc.

How to clear Office Word, Excel, PowerPoint cache

To clear Office Word, Excel or PowerPoint cache, take these steps:

1. Open any Office file
2. Click on Options
3. From the Options window, click on Save in the left side
4. Scroll down and locate Cache settings
5. Click on Delete cached files.
6. Select Delete Cached Files again to confirm your action.

The Office cached files for that Office app will be cleared.

How do I change Days to keep Cache Files in Office apps?

To change Days to keep Cache Files in Office apps like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc, take these steps:

1. Open the Office file
2. Click on Options
3. From the Options window, click on Save in the left side
4. Scroll down and locate Cache settings
5. Select the box under Days to keep files in the Office Document Cache and enter the number of days
6. Select Delete files from the Office Document Cache when they are closed.
7. Click on OK and exit.

Clear web add-ins cache automatically in Office apps

To clear web add-ins cache automatically on exit or start in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc. Office apps, via Trust Center, follow these steps:

1. Open Word, Excel, or PowerPoint.
2. Click on the File menu.
3. Click on the Options.
4. Switch to the Trust Center tab.
5. Click on the Trust Center Settings button.
6. Go to the Trusted Add-in Catalogs tab.
7. Tick the Next time Office starts, clear all previously-started web add-ins cache checkbox.
8. Click the OK button.

First, you need to open Microsoft Word, Excel, or PowerPoint. As said earlier, we have used Microsoft Excel to showcase the screenshots. In that case, you need to open the Microsoft Excel app on your computer and create a blank spreadsheet.

Then, click on the File file in the top menu bar and click on the Options visible in the bottom-left corner. It will open the Excel Options panel.

For your information, if you have used Word or PowerPoint, the same steps open Word Options or PowerPoint Options, respectively. Then, you need to switch to the Trust Center tab on the left side and click on the Trust Center Settings button.

Next, switch to the Trusted Add-in Catalogs tab on the left side. Here you can find a section called Trusted Web Add-in Catalogs. Here, you can see the option named Next time Office starts, clear all previously-started web add-ins cache.

You need to tick this specific checkbox and click the OK button to save the change.

Once done, it will clear the web add-ins cache whenever you restart the Office apps, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc. However, if you do not want to clear the cache, you can open the same Trust Center panel and remove the tick from the respective checkbox.

Read: Make Word always create a backup copy of a document

How do I clear the cache in PowerPoint?

There is no direct option to clear the cache in PowerPoint. However, if you want to delete a cached file that is stuck while uploading, you need to use the Repair option. This option appears when an upload gets stuck on your computer in the Upload Center.

Read:

• The Microsoft Office Document Cache encountered a problem
• How to clear the Clipboard in Excel, Word or PowerPoint

Where is the Microsoft Office cache?

The Office cache files are located at C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Wef. For your information, the Microsoft Office cache is not readable. However, it uses the cache only in the Upload Center so that users can continue working on the file while the upload is in process. It removes the cache automatically after a certain number of days to free up some space on your PC. However, you can also delete files from the Office Document Cache when you close it. You might want to read our post titled – Where are Office Document Cache settings in Office Upload Center?

Read: 

• How to clear the Cache in Windows 11
• How to enable or disable Overtype Mode in Word.