Web sites save bandwidth by instructing your web browser to store many parts of the site in its local cache (normally on your hard drive), so that they are downloaded only once. This includes pages you’ve previously viewed, images previously displayed, style sheets, Flash, JavaScripts, etc.

Sometimes this has the undesired and highly confusing result that a recent change made to the website, may not appear.

When you encounter odd behaviour, you need to force your browser to bypass the cache so that the whole page is reloaded even if there is a cached copy. Normally, revisiting the cached page, or clicking “Refresh” or “Reload”, will cause the browser to ask the Web site if there is a newer version available, however if that does not work, try the methods outlined below.

Internet Explorer

To reload a page and bypass the cache:

  • either: Hold the Ctrl key and press the F5 key.
  • or: Hold the Ctrl key and click the Refresh button on the toolbar.

Firefox

To reload a page and bypass the cache:

  • either: Hold down both the Ctrl and Shift keys and then press R. (Alternatively, hold down the Ctrl key and then press F5.) On a Mac, use the Command key instead of Ctrl.
  • or: Hold down the Shift key and click the Reload button on the navigation toolbar.

Safari

To reload a page and bypass the cache:

  • for version 4 and newer:
    – Hold down the Shift key and click the Reload toolbar button.
  • for version 3 and older:
    – Hold down the Command key, and press R. This kind of “regular” reload will usually bypass the cache.
  • Note that Apple claims that clicking the Reload toolbar button has the same effect as Command-R, but this is not true; frequently the button will not bypass the cache. In fact, numerous Web developers have reported erratic behavior in general in bypassing the cache in Safari, in some cases having to resort to both clearing the cache (see below) and then quitting and relaunching the application.

Google Chrome

To reload a page and bypass the cache:

  • Press the Shift key and browser’s Reload-button to reload ignoring cache.