# Google Chrome folder is nearly 5GB big!



## daurf

Hi everyone, I'm new here! I'm not a power user but I know a few things about computers. Today I'd like to ask for advice.

Today I looked at my Google Chrome folder (C:\Users\Name\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome) and saw that it's taking up 4.9 gigabytes on my hard drive!

I have used Google Chrome since it was first publicly released but only ever the stable versions. I also only use two extensions (ad block and a twitter thing). 

I am running Windows Vista Home Premium with Google Chrome with the latest stable release (7.0.517.44)

I don't think Google Chrome needs to use this much hard drive space. I have tried clearing the cache through the browser, but the Chrome folder is still huge! Do you have any thoughts about this? Your advice is welcome!

Thank you for reading!


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## daz1

have alook to see what is actually making up the 4.9 gb, if you do not need suggest uninstall and reinstall

chrome may have imported everything from your other browsers mine is 4.9 mb not gb


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## daurf

In the C:\Users\Name\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default folder there are many "History Index" files that are 30-100 megabytes each and a file called "Thumbnails" that is 162 megabytes. There is also a folder called "Cache" that has lots of randomly named files in it that take up 3.7 gigabytes. It's strange because I already cleared the cache through the menus in Chrome, so I don't know what the problem is.


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## stantley

Get CCleaner, it clears temp internet files, cookies and history of all the major browsers, including Google Chrome. It should get rid of the "History Index" files.

Just don't use the registry section of CCleaner.


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## daurf

Thank you. I used CCleaner to remove the cache files and it saved gigabytes of space on my hard drive!

Regarding deleting the history in Chrome, I can get rid of the oldest history from over a year ago but I would like to keep the more recent things. In Internet Explorer you can set it to keep the history for 1 week or 1 month, etc but can you do that with Chrome? I want to keep some of the history, just not over a years worth!


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## stantley

daurf said:


> In Internet Explorer you can set it to keep the history for 1 week or 1 month, etc but can you do that with Chrome?


Yes, go to Tools > Clear Browsing Data and where it says "Clear data from this period" there's Last Week and Last 4 Weeks. Then make sure "Clear Browsing History" is checked and "Internet History" for Google Chrome is not checked in CCleaner.

I would assume that means delete data older than that time period, but I don't use Google Chrome that much so I'm not absolutely sure.


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## daurf

I tried this and it actually just deleted the browsing history from the last four weeks so the older history is still there. It's so strange... It seems that Internet Explorer is better at this


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## stantley

Try this Google Chrome Extension, History Limiter. There are a few other history extensions you could check out.


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