Every cleanup guide says clear your cache - and half the internet then complains it was signed out of everything. Both are talking about the same screen and different checkboxes. Here is the careful version.
The confusion lives on one screen. Cached images and files, cookies and history sit side by side in Clear browsing data, but they are three different stores doing three different jobs. The cache holds copies of site files; cookies hold your sign-ins; your saved passwords live somewhere else entirely. Tick only the cache box and you get the repair without the sign-outs - this page shows exactly which box does what, and when the bigger clear is honestly worth its price.
Chrome's Clear browsing data screen holds separate checkboxes because the items are separate things. Browsing history is the list of addresses you have visited. Cookies and other site data holds your signed-in sessions - the proof that sites use to know you are logged in. Cached images and files holds local copies of site content so pages load faster. The routine advice 'clear your cache' concerns only the third box - yet most cleanup guides tick all three and sign you out of your entire internet.
Result: every site fetches fresh files, broken layouts and stale pages heal, and you stay signed in everywhere. Your saved passwords are not on this screen at all - they were never in danger. This is also the cache behaviour the repair script in the video performs: cache and temp files, not your identity.
Clearing cookies deletes your sign-in sessions on every site, so the next visit everywhere begins at a login page. Sometimes that cost is the cure: a site stuck in a login loop, a page that insists you are signed out while showing your name, a banking site behaving impossibly - those are cookie diseases, and for one misbehaving site you can delete only its cookies from the padlock icon instead of everyone's. Save the full cookie clear for when the evidence demands it, and know the price before you pay it.
Saved passwords are stored in Chrome's Password Manager (Settings, then Autofill and passwords) - a completely different store from the cache and cookies, with its own separate delete option buried in the Advanced tab of the clear-data screen, labelled Passwords. As long as you never tick that box, no amount of cache or cookie clearing touches a single saved password. If Chrome sync is on, the passwords also live in your Google account and return on any device you sign in to.
There are three honest occasions for ticking everything: the careful clear failed and corruption clearly sits deeper; a login loop survives single-site cookie deletion; or you are handing the PC to someone else, cookies and history included. Before any of them, spend two minutes confirming your passwords are visible in Password Manager or synced to your Google account - then the worst the full clear can do is make you sign in again, which is an errand, not a loss.
The custom Chrome repair script in action - 15 common Chrome problems fixed in about a minute, shown live, step-by-step.
Watch Full VideoNo. Cached images and files is a separate checkbox that removes only local copies of site content. Saved passwords live in Chrome's Password Manager and are removed only if you deliberately tick Passwords in the Advanced tab of the same screen.
Because cookies were cleared along with the cache. Cookies hold your signed-in sessions, so deleting them ends every login at once. Next time, tick only Cached images and files.
There is no schedule. Clear it when a site misbehaves or the cache is damaged or bloated. Clearing it routinely only slows browsing down, because Chrome must download fresh copies of everything.