How to Flush the DNS Cache on a Mac

If you're having trouble loading websites, flushing the DNS cache on your Mac can help resolve these type of issues. In this article we'll describe what this process is and how to do it.

DNS is the internet service that translates a human readable website address like www.smartsourcedit.com into an IP address which in the our example is 198.185.159.144. The IP address is the actual address that computers use to communicate across networks and the internet.

If your DNS cache gets corrupted or in other words has bad data, it can stop you from reaching the website you are trying to reach. A DNS flush removes all the old records stored on your computer, so the next time you try to reach out to smartsourcedit.com, your Mac will ask your internet service provider's DNS server for the information and will then store the new copy in your DNS cache.

How to flush the cache:

Note: For this command to work you must be logged into an Administrator account on your Mac.

1. Open Terminal and type the following command: sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder

2. You will be prompted to enter your password:

NOTE: When you enter your password you will not see the typical **** it will remain blank, but your password is being entered.

3. After pushing enter, the command will run and you will just be returned to the console prompt with no notification. This is normal and indicates the command was run without any issue or error:

Return to your web browser or application and see if that has resolved your connection issue.