Clear Your DNS Cache in macOS with/Without Terminal

Flushing the DNS cache on the MacBook is not a task for network administrator or system administrator. In order to fix cache poisoning, Internet connection issues and communicate with the host correctly, you have to grasp the skill to clear DNS cache on your Mac.

What should you do if you were not familiar with the command lines of Terminal on Mac? The article shares the details about how to flush the DNS cache in macOS Big Sur, Mojave, High Sierra and earlier operation systems as well as an easy alternative. Just learn more details from the article now.

• Part 1: The Easy Method to Flush DNS on Mac without Terminal
• Part 2: How to Clear DNS in macOS via Terminal

Part 1: The Easy Method to Flush DNS on Mac without Terminal

When you need to flush the DNS cache on all versions of macOS without command, or clear up all caches about the DNS, Apeaksoft Mac Cleaner is the one-stop Mac cleaner to clean DNS caches as well as other system junk, Photos junk, email junk, iTunes junk, large & old files, duplicated folder, uninstall apps and more others.

Once you have installed the Mac Cleaner, you can launch the program on your Mac computer. Choose the “Cleaner” option to have a quick start in the clearing process on your Mac.

Click the “System Junk” to scan and locate the DNS caches. It includes the system cache, application cache, system logs, user logs, and more other localization files.

After that, you can click the “Scan” button, which takes a period of time to scan all the files. You can click the “View” button to check out the scan results to avoid any mistaken deletion.

If you cannot get the files, you can click the “Re-scan” to scan the Mac again. Choose the DNS caches you want to clean, and then you can delete them by clicking the “Clean” button.

There is a confirmation window to confirm the process of flush DNS on Mac. Make sure you want to clean the DNS caches in the selected system junk, and click the “Confirm” button.

Part 2: How to Clear DNS in macOS via Terminal

How to flush DNS on Mac? Just close the web browser before performing a flush. It might not as difficult as your imagination. You have to pay attention to the macOS you are running.

Flush DNS Cache in macOS Big Sur and Mojave

Step 1Go to “Applications” > “Utilities” > “Terminal”. It is the method to open up your Terminal command line interface application. You can follow the same process to launch the Terminal for other macOS.

Step 2Just type the following command, you can also copy and paste the command in the Terminal from a note.

sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder

Step 3Type in the administrator password and press enter. The command will process to flush your DNS cache on macOS Big Sur and Mojave.

Note: If you do not want to check the status manually, you can also ask the macOS to popup a message after clearing the DNS on MacBook. Here is the command line for your reference.

sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder;say DNS cache has been flushed

Clear DNS Cache in macOS Yosemite or Above

Step 1Navigate to “Applications” > “Utilities” > “Terminal”.

Step 2Type the following command and press Enter:

sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder

Step 3Just make sure you have the administrator account password.

Flush DNS Cache in macOS Yosemite v10.10 through v10.10.3

Step 1Navigate to “Applications” > “Utilities” > “Terminal”.

Step 2Type the following command and press Enter:

sudo discoveryutil mdnsflushcache

Step 3The administrator account password is also required.

Remove DNS Cache in macOS Mavericks/Mountain Lion/Lion

Step 1Navigate to “Applications” > “Utilities” > “Terminal”.

Step 2Type the following command and press Enter:

sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder

Step 3Enter the password of the administrator account if asked.

Flush DNS Cache in macOS Snow Leopard or Lower

Step 1Navigate to “Applications” > “Utilities” > “Terminal”.

Step 2Type the following command and press Enter:

sudo dscacheutil –flushcache

Step 3It will ask the password for the administrator account.

Flush the MDNS/UDNS Cache

In order to flush all DNS caches on MacBook, you also need to clear both the Multicast DNS (MDNS) and Unicast DNS (UDNS). Just follow the similar method to clear the caches.

Clear the MDNS cache

sudo discoveryutil mdnsflushcache

Clear the UDNS cache

sudo discoveryutil udnsflushcaches