Question
How to clear the Tableau Desktop query cache. A user may see the below error message, which could indicate the Tableau query cache has reached its limits.An error occurred while communicating with the data source.
Last Modified Date: 24 Aug 2022
Environment
- Tableau Desktop
- Windows
- Mac OS
Answer
Option 1: Invalidate the Cache by Refreshing the Data Source
Each time the data source is refreshed, the cache is invalidated, making this a very simple alternative to the more complicated process of manually clearing the cache.Option 2: Manually Clear the Cache
- Close all instances of Tableau Desktop.
- Navigate to the Tableau caching folder:
- Windows: C\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Tableau\Caching
- Mac: ~/Library/Caches/com.tableau.Caching
- Delete the content of the following folders: TemporaryExtracts and ExternalCacheV1.
Additional Information
- This only works for file-based data sources upon which a query has been performed, as this is a query cache.
- This also clears the query cache for Tableau Reader as they share the same cache.
- Restarting Tableau Desktop does NOT clear the query cache, as Tableau Desktop uses a file-based cache, not a memory-based one.
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