How to clear Stock Browser cache when browser isn't installed? Edit: This question was made when I assumed that apps put their web cache into the stock browser's own cache. This is not the case. Apps usually put this data into their own app_webview folder. I'll keep this question up though since Izzy's answer is a good one.



I have a Sony Xperia E3 running Android 4.4.2, and after using AppInventor for some time the inbuilt browser (aka the stock Android browser) has taken up a large amount of storage space with the cache.

Since the stock browser technically isn't installed I can't access the menu to clear the cache.

Is there any way to clear the cache without factory resetting/rooting?
As a side-effect of clearing all caches of all apps: boot into recovery-mode, and select "wipe cache". That wipes caches of all apps, but keeps your apps and data themselves intact.

If you have usb-debugging activated and adb available to use, there's a command doing the very same:

fastboot erase cache


This comes in handy especially for devices where you cannot access the recovery-mode.

Hint: you might be tempted to suggest adb shell pm clear com.android.browser for the very same purpose, restricting the purge to the specific app. Note that this is not only clearing the cache, but all the app's data as well. And it requires "elevated permissions" (i.e. root) to be executed – which is probably why it returned "failed" when you tried. The full command would then read:

adb shell su -c "pm clear com.android.browser"