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I don't know what exactly it's called, by cache refresh I mean, refresh the page after clearing its cache. I don't want to clear the entire browser cache.

I can't seem to cache refresh my pages. In Firefox, I know it to be Shift+Refresh.

In Chrome, I've tried Ctrl+R, Ctrl+Refresh, Alt+Refresh, Shift+Refresh but none of them work.

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  • 2
    My version's 4.0.206.1 Tried it again after making a change to my source code (PHP). Refreshed fine in FF with Shift+F5. Change didn't show up Chrome after Ctrl+Refresh.
    – gAMBOOKa
    Sep 7, 2009 at 20:54
  • By "Ctrl+Refresh", do you mean actually clicking the refresh button? I don't know whether that works in Chrome; I'm nearly positive Ctrl+F5 works as expected, though.
    – Twisol
    Sep 7, 2009 at 20:58
  • 1
    Tried both with F5 and Refresh, Ctrl and Shift... no change. No proxy configured,
    – gAMBOOKa
    Sep 7, 2009 at 21:19
  • 13
    Command-Shift-R works in Mac (OS X 10.6.7 and Chrome 17.0.963.56).
    – Joe Mornin
    Feb 28, 2012 at 14:44
  • 6
    On a mac: hold CONTROL and click Chrome's reload button
    – Mitch Fournier
    May 5, 2012 at 19:04

13 Answers 13

Reset to default
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Push F12 or Ctrl+Shift+J to "Open Developer Tools" on Windows (On Mac: Cmd+Opt+I) then you can right click on the refresh icon and select 'Empty Cache and Hard Reload'

screenshot

See: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/12633425/chrome-browser-reload-options-new-feature

The documentation says:

  • For Windows and Linux: Shift+F5 or Ctrl+Shift+R
    • (screenshot): enter image description here
  • For Mac: Cmd+Shft+R):

Reloads your current page, ignoring cached content.

Although some have reported this works, others have said it does not work correctly

Your other options are:

  1. JavaScript Console

    The JavaScript Console is available in two modes within Chrome DevTools: the primary Console tab, or as a split-view you can display while on another tab (such as Elements or Sources).

    To open the Console tab, do one of the following:

    Use the keyboard shortcut Command - Option - J (Mac) or Control -Shift -J (Windows/Linux). Select View > Developer > JavaScript Console.

    F12 doesn't appear to be mentioned here but will open this console on Windows as well.

    Chrome Developer Tools

    Using the JavaScript Console

  2. Incognito window

    Another interesting option is to open a new incognito window (Ctrl+Shift+N On Mac: ⌘ + Shift + N.). This window won't use any stored cookies, cached content, or DNS resolutions, so you can test stuff in it without slowing your normal browsing down by dumping the cache. This is what I almost always do instead of clearing the cache. https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/95464

  3. Disable cache

    Open Chrome Developer Tools (F12, Mac: ⌘+⌥+I). Click the settings icon (a gear in the bottom right corner). Check "Disable cache". Now when you browse with your Developer tools open caching is disabled.

  4. Click&Clean

    Finally there is also the option of the Click&Clean extension

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    You don't need to open dev tools. Also F12 is for windows. On mac : ⌥⌘I Source: developers.google.com/chrome-developer-tools/docs/shortcuts
    – basarat
    Mar 31, 2013 at 1:56
  • Not sure if it was the Click&Clean and Ctrl-F5 but it finally worked for me. Thanks!
    – Patrick
    Apr 24, 2013 at 14:14
  • Came here looking for a quick solution, sick of Ctrl+F5 not working, but this is very long-winded: it's quicker or me to do hold Ctrl+F5 a second or two (rapidly reloading), which does work. Other than that, I don't even see the option you allude to in the first para, but you seem to miss the basic F12->Network->Right-Click->Clear Browser Cache. Granted this does do the entire cache (not cookie etc., though).
    – Grant Thomas
    May 13, 2013 at 20:50
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    Disable cache is on the Network tab of Developer Tools now.
    – Neurotransmitter
    Dec 28, 2016 at 9:51
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    I'm not sure why anyone said you do not need the dev tools open. For me, you need them open and then this works great. Thanks for the tip.
    – nycynik
    Mar 14, 2017 at 21:54
65

Another interesting option is to open a new incognito window (Ctrl+Shift+N). This window won't use any stored cookies, cached content, or dns resolutions, so you can test stuff in it without slowing your normal browsing down by dumping the cache. This is what I almost always do instead of clearing the cache.

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    +1 I find Chrome will cache file downloads. This is especially frustrating when I'm working on apache/nginx configs and I'm downloading index.php instead of viewing it. The only way is the clear the entire cache, use incognito, or use Firefox.
    – James
    Mar 14, 2011 at 16:29
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    argh, except sometimes it doesn't work. I just spent 15 minutes trying to figure out why my externally loaded SWF file wasn't accurate. Firefox showed it as being correct, no keystroke refresh combo in Incognito Chrome cleared the SWF from cache, nor did clearing the actual Chrome cache and refreshing the Incognito window. I had to close and re-open Incognito window completely for the cache to finally let go of the SWF. Was working fine for about an hour until this happened :/
    – danjah
    Feb 12, 2012 at 22:39
  • Again 5 minutes later, this is not a reliable solution insofar as I can tell. Chrome v17.0.963.46 m
    – danjah
    Feb 12, 2012 at 22:47
  • this will also disable extensions, which may go counter to some testing
    – Daniel Watrous
    Sep 6, 2016 at 19:20
19

According to documentation, Ctrl+F5 or Shift+F5 should work. Maybe you have a proxy configured on IE & chrome, which is caching your page?

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  • 2
    If you really want to be sure you have to clear the cache using Tools options.
    – sorin
    Jul 22, 2010 at 16:17
  • 2
    You need to clear the cache using Tools in order to flush the favicon from the cache; normal hard-reload doesn't do it.
    – RomanSt
    Dec 22, 2010 at 19:03
  • 4
    Link in your answer no longer directs to the intended page.
    – Audite Marlow
    Dec 15, 2016 at 10:05
9

A workaround is hitting reload very quickly twice in a row.

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    Not in all cases it seems, I just had a page that didn't want to load because of earlier dns issues and Chrome simply refused to load it for about a minute... after that it worked again.
    – Wolph
    Sep 20, 2013 at 11:51
  • aside from more direct ways like disabling cache under network tabs or in preferences, I sometimes find that refreshing the page more than ten times has the clearing effect. Just repeatedly hit refresh 10-15 times
    – roberthuttinger
    Jan 18, 2018 at 17:15
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I've had problems with Chrome refreshing in spite of using shift+F5 or ⌘+shift+r.

What I've found works though pretty brutish is to hold down ⌘+shift+r for a few seconds so that the browser makes multiple attempts to refresh the Java cache and fails. Then the next time it successfully retrieve JS from the server.

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    Yes, I can confirm this. I've been doing this myself.
    – gAMBOOKa
    Oct 13, 2010 at 3:43
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Chrome sucks for this. Sometimes I can get Shift+F5 to work but not always. My solution for the moment is to use the 'Click & Clean' extension. It's ugly but works every time so I'd recommend that for now.

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    For me, Ctrl+Shift+R twice works every time. I don't know why they made it so annoying.
    – RomanSt
    Sep 8, 2011 at 13:46
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Open Chrome Developer Tools (F12 or Ctrl+Shift+I or Menu/Tools/Developer Tools). Click the settings icon (a gear in the bottom right corner). Check "Disable cache". Now when you browse with your Developer tools open caching is disabled.

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3

You can right click, go Inspect Element under the Resources or Application (in newer versions) tab collapse Cookies right click on domain name and click Clear.

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2

Ctrl+Shift+F5 seems to work for me.

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1

it could simply be your keyboard settings, check if you have the functions keys enabled or disabled, with my logitech keybaord it is the FMode key, similar to NumLock!

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  1. Click the Tools menu. (the wrench in the upper-right corner)

  2. Select Options.

  3. Click the Under the Hood tab.

  4. Click Clear browsing data…

  5. Check the boxes for the types of information you wish to delete.

    • Clear browsing history
    • Clear download history
    • Empty the cache
    • Delete cookies
    • Clear saved passwords

You can also choose the period of time you wish to delete cached information using the Clear data from this period dropdown menu.

  1. Click Clear Browsing Data when ready.
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    Why would I delete my entire cache to test a single page?! I'd rather use Firefox.
    – gAMBOOKa
    Oct 20, 2010 at 8:31
  • Chrome is back in the picture as you can now hard reload - superuser.com/a/512833/92862
    – Paul C
    Dec 3, 2012 at 11:45
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On Windows Ctrl + F5 for hard reload, and just F5 for reload.

On Mac ⇧ + ⌘ + R for hard reload and ⌘ + R for reload.

hard reload clears the stored cache for that page.

If you're interested in just testing stuff out, go incognito. You can just close this window to clear all the temporary cache and history.

On Windows: Ctrl+Shift+N

On Mac: ⌘ + Shift + N

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<Google Chrome>

Reload the page by emptying cache:

Ctrl+F5, Shift+F5 or Ctrl+Shift+R

Reload the page by not emptying cache:

F5 or Ctrl+R

<Firefox>

Reload the page by emptying cache:

Ctrl+F5 or Ctrl+Shift+R

Reload the page by not emptying cache:

F5 or Ctrl+R

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