How to Hard Refresh Your Browser

If a website doesn’t look right, recent changes aren’t showing, or things seem stuck, your browser is probably using a cached (saved) version of the page. A hard refresh forces the browser to reload the latest files from the server.

What Is a Hard Refresh?

A hard refresh reloads a page without using cached files, ensuring you see the most up-to-date version of the site. This is useful after:

• Website updates or deployments

• Bug fixes

• Styling or layout changes

• Troubleshooting loading issues

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Standard Hard Refresh

Windows

• Chrome / Edge / Firefox:
  Ctrl + F5 or Ctrl + Shift + R

Mac

• Chrome / Firefox:
  Cmd + Shift + R

• Safari:
  Enable the Develop menu, then choose Develop → Empty Caches, and refresh.

This bypasses cached files for the current page but does not clear the entire site cache.

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Advanced: “Empty Cache and Hard Reload”

If a standard hard refresh does not work, you can force a deeper reload.

1. Open Developer Tools

   • Windows: F12 or Ctrl + Shift + I

   • Mac: Cmd + Option + I

2. With DevTools open, right-click the Refresh button (⟳) in the browser toolbar

3. Select Empty Cache and Hard Reload

This clears cached resources for the entire site and forces everything to be downloaded again. 

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For Developers: How to Avoid Hard Refreshes Being Needed

Ideally, users should never need to hard refresh. Good caching strategy makes updates seamless.

Use Cache Busting

Version static assets:

• Append hashes or version numbers to filenames app.9f3a21.js instead of app.js

 

Test Like a User

Before releasing:

• Test without DevTools open

• Test in an incognito window

• Test on a different device or network

If you need a hard refresh to see your own changes, users almost certainly will too.