Even seemingly simple web pages involve downloading several files behind-the-scenes before your browser can render something that looks and acts sharp for you.  To speed up that process our servers and your browser are constantly communicating about what files should be used to get you to the end result.

For example, when it comes time for our servers to render the login page on your first ever visit, we’re going to need to send you the login page itself + a file that details exactly how it should be displayed.  After you signin, we need to show you a page that allows you to search inside your case + that same file that lets your browser know how to display it.  If you’re thinking “seems a little wasteful to send that ‘how to display’ file again”, you’re absolutely right.

Part of the communication between our server and your browser is to let it know: “We already send you this file and the old copy hasn’t changed, so just re-use it instead of re-downloading”.  Where this breaks down is if you’ve already reached the “max cache size” for your browser.  At that point it stops saving files for re-use and just always downloads them.  If this is happening to you you’ll notice the connection status in your browser cycling through waiting / connecting / connected / transferring several times for just a single page.

If you suspect this is happening to you, you could be wasting a log of time.  The quickest and easiest fix is to clear the cache in your browser.  Alternatively (and temporarily), you could increase the amount of space your browser is allowed to use for caching this type of files which you can do in the “Preferences” pane of your browser.