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Does Chrome have an equivalent to Firefox's Ctrl+F5 refresh? I can't seem to find one.
I changed my gravatar last night, and I can see the new one in Firefox after a Ctrl+F5 refresh, but Chrome seems to be stubbornly hanging on to the old Gravatar. I guess I could manually clear out the cache, but if there is a keyboard command to do it I'd like to know what it is (since it would be helpful for web development too).
Kip
Posted 2009-12-31T15:29:52.990
Reputation: 4 275
204
Chrome documentation states that Ctrl+F5 or Shift+F5 should do "Reloads your current page, ignoring cached content. "
If it is not working, you can file a bug report, but it looks like quite a few other people are having the same issue.
[Existing bug log on this issue] Closed as a duplicate, the issue remmains:
William Hilsum
Posted 2009-12-31T15:29:52.990
Reputation: 111 572
@Alex I'm using Chromium and the bug seems present there as well (at least today). – skytreader – 2014-06-23T06:36:46.323
@Psyrus, I agree, even with Chromium. :C – skytreader – 2014-06-23T06:37:20.497
I'm having my issue with creating a gist, evaluating it on http://bl.ocks.org/, then updating the gist. The update doesn't come through unless I manually delete the cache in chrome. Does anyone else have a reproducible example?
– geneorama – 2014-09-23T20:48:41.533Ctrl-F5... well try that with an iFrame you want to reload :/ – needfulthing – 2019-02-12T11:24:03.380
@whitequark it seems necessary to do that step (Cmd+Shift+Delete on OSX) in order to clear the cached Flash XML. – sholsinger – 2011-06-15T16:17:01.570
4I load scripts asynchronously from javascript, and Chrome seems to continue to use cached versions even after ctrl-f5, etc. Clearing the cache works. But another solution is to open an Incognito window (ctrl-shift-n), as it will Incognito mode will not use the cache. – Tauren – 2011-09-20T07:36:21.683
3Haha Chrome is super-cached, the only way I can overcome it is hitting Shift + F5 at least two times (really). – Halil Özgür – 2012-06-04T10:15:24.453
2Chrome team should be embarrassed at such a bug sitting in the bug queue for over 2 years. I am very disappointed. – Brian Webster – 2012-10-09T10:46:29.150
Great new feature added to Chrome for forcing a hard refresh - http://superuser.com/a/512833/92862
– Coops – 2012-11-30T12:46:40.213ctrl + r seemed to be the only one that worked for me (windows) – Buzzology – 2012-12-06T11:55:11.187
3Definitely not working. Chrome can just suck so badly some times. – iconoclast – 2013-06-18T17:43:17.777
Is this just not fixed in the official Google-Chrome or also not on the open source version? – Alex – 2013-07-18T17:47:39.430
1@Tauren : Thank you so much for the incognito solution! I cannot believe it is now nearing the end of 2013 and still this is a problem. I just wasted nearly 2 hours trying to debug what appeared to be the most bizarre problem on my dynamic loading of javascripts. I came here when I realized there was no way Chrome was using the live copy of one of them... – Psyrus – 2013-10-04T22:45:27.413
Scrap that, I can confirm 100% that incognito does use cached versions also. Argh! – Psyrus – 2013-10-04T23:15:31.707
1Looks like it may be partly Gravatar's fault. In the header for my image, they are sending Last-Modified: Fri, 20 Jun 2008 12:25:23 GMT. I think this is either the date I uploaded my old Gravatar, or the date I signed up for Gravatar. The browser must be seeing that and thinking "oh, this new file has the same last-modification date, so I'll just use the cached one still." It's a bug if Chrome is doing that on a refresh ignoring cache, but it's a bug for Gravatar to send the wrong last-modification as well. I've contacted both parties. :) – Kip – 2009-12-31T16:16:02.397
205
In the opened developer tools (Ctrl+Shft+I or ⌘+⌥+I):
Chris
Posted 2009-12-31T15:29:52.990
Reputation: 2 051
Even with activated Disable cache check box and open developer tools there still seems to be a difference between F5 and Shift+F5. An ajax call on my web page behaves differently, depending on the sort of refresh and I do not yet understand why. – Stefan – 2015-12-17T14:52:20.787
3In the newer developer tools (can be triggered by F12, too) the "Disable cache" setting can be found in the Network tab. – anre – 2016-04-27T17:35:05.120
Welcome to the year 2019. The "Disable Cache" checkbox in the dev window still does not reload JS / CSS files. – needfulthing – 2019-02-12T11:23:03.473
This is very useful when the URL you see after the page has loaded is not the same you inserted, because there is a redirect in the cached page. When this happens you cannot force the cache with regular method (CTRL+F5)! – Kar.ma – 2020-01-23T17:13:43.477
Doesn't work for me, had to use incognito. – Antony Stubbs – 2012-10-18T14:48:21.420
4But why is there no short-cut key to trigger this! – Coops – 2012-11-12T16:32:56.120
7Note the cache is only disabled while Developer Tools are open. If you close it, your cache is active again. – Icode4food – 2012-12-06T16:15:40.610
100
On a Mac, it's Shift+Command+R, or holding down Shift while clicking the reload button (as opposed to Command+R or a normal click for a regular refresh).
Some more details:
For Shift+Command+R, cache is simply ignored and resources are requested like no cache existed.
For Command+R, Chrome will issue If-Modified-Since or Etag requests to the web server, even for things that are actually cached. For most, if not all, content the server should then respond with 304 Not Modified. This is true for most, if not all, modern browsers.
The only way to force relying on the cache (without the browser even asking for possible changes) seems to be clicking a link on the web page, or by following a bookmarked link, or by going into the URL location bar and hitting Return there (Command+L, Return).
However: a longstanding known issue in Chrome, Chrome Forced Refresh does not ignore cache (and the more recent Reload/Refresh does not refresh), or maybe actually a feature in WebKit, Dynamically inserted subresources aren't revalidated even when the containing document is reloaded, makes Chrome not clear ALL related caches when using the above methods. A Chromium developer explains:
The network tab of the developer tools show a waterfall of all resources as they are loaded. There are two vertical lines at the right hand side... one of them is labeled "Load event fired" on hover. Anything loading after that point is not officially part of the page (a page can keep issuing requests for hours) [...] so it will NOT be "refreshed" with any combination of f5. This is by design.
[...]
Caching [of any resource, before and after the "Load event fired" line] is determined by the HTTP headers of the response, not by the time the request was issued.
Also note a @ChromiumDev's tweet:
Chrome DevTools' Disable Cache invalidates the disk cache (great for developing!), but.. only while devtools is visible.
Arjan
Posted 2009-12-31T15:29:52.990
Reputation: 29 084
Thanks for the great detailed answer. Possibly too technical for the audience but I value it greatly. – sholsinger – 2011-06-15T16:17:32.303
Command-Shift-R is not working in current Chrome stable. – Olivier – 2012-03-14T14:02:08.640
It seems to be working fine on my Mac, @olouv. Did you peek into the Developer Tool's Network tab? (True, on this very site there are a few resources for which Chrome still issues an If-Modified-Since request instead, but those resources are requested by JavaScript, not by the HTML parser. Also, as caching for the page itself is set to just one minute, maybe small differences in server time and local time might mess up too?) – Arjan – 2012-03-14T18:03:02.973
BEWARE, note a two year old, but still current bug in Chrome: Chrome Forced Refresh does not ignore cache. – Arjan – 2012-09-10T17:18:20.317
22
sobi3ch
Posted 2009-12-31T15:29:52.990
Reputation: 1 140
Great, in fact, even after i closed the devtool, it always clear cache. – diyism – 2014-09-03T09:34:34.000
This option is no longer in the console settings. – Robb Vandaveer – 2019-12-04T19:39:41.833
16
The question is a bit old, but in the recent version of Chrome
Developer tools using F12 or Ctrl+Shift+IThis will bypass the cache and reload the page fully.
The doc says Ctrl+F5 or Shift+F5 but unfortunately as of today the bug is still not solved :-(
Ring Ø
Posted 2009-12-31T15:29:52.990
Reputation: 483
You can also hold SHIFT while clicking the refresh button – Bolli – 2014-06-24T21:11:08.917
1As an aside: this is Windows-only. (And I've read it's only available when the developer tools are open?) – Arjan – 2013-08-28T17:50:49.253
2Only works when Developer Tools are open, as you say Arjan. – mgkrebbs – 2013-11-03T04:50:33.587
9
I have files (images and full html pages) on the server that get updated and no key combination in chrome seems to force fetching them.
I rely on chrome´s incognito mode - CTRL-SHIFT-N - when I need to force refresh.
Note that CTRL-R or CTRL-F5 while inside an incognito window doesn´t seem to work either. You must close and reopen the incognito window - hence my reliance on shortcuts - CTRL-W to close, CTRL-SHIFT-N to reopen.
Daniel Gill
Posted 2009-12-31T15:29:52.990
Reputation: 191
You mean "re-open a incognito tab", not window, I suppose? – mgol – 2012-10-11T12:01:26.800
1Interesting, for me CTRL-SHIFT-N opens a new window, not just a tab - is that not always the case? – Daniel Gill – 2012-10-11T18:50:44.367
6
There definitely is no simple way to do this in Chrome like other browsers. The documentation may say that CTRL+F5 or SHIFT+F5 should reload and ignore cache, but it simply doesn't. I have a flash slideshow that stores the settings/configuration in an .xml file, and after updating the XML file, Chrome will still load the cached version unless I purge the cache. I always have to run another browser when updating the slideshow so I don't have to clear my Chrome cache all the time.
jwalker55
Posted 2009-12-31T15:29:52.990
Reputation: 71
5Flash cache is something completely different from Chrome. – Joshua – 2010-09-02T05:13:28.110
@Joshua Unless as this guy states, it works in other browsers but not Chrome. Don't forget Chrome comes with its own build of Flash player. – Camilo Martin – 2012-06-28T00:14:02.277
@CamiloMartin ... which also has its own separate cache. Wait... did you seriously respond to a post that's more than 2 years old? Ugh. I took the bait. – Joshua – 2012-06-28T14:03:52.733
@Joshua Oh, you're right, I didn't realise :) – Camilo Martin – 2012-06-30T16:03:17.317
5
Ctrl - Shift - Delete will allow you to remove cache for the previous hour. That will assure that the next time you reload a site it is fresh.
J Baron
Posted 2009-12-31T15:29:52.990
Reputation: 800
4
Definitely a bug in Chrome - it's also images that should be changed, but it uses the old image instead, even after repeatedly hitting Ctrl + F5.
I was trying to change my Google Apps logo, but the only way it will change on Gmail is if I use incognito mode or clear the entire cache. Ctrl + F5 keeps the old logo.
Gabe
Posted 2009-12-31T15:29:52.990
Reputation: 41
3
I did this: Right Click the FRAME (that was out of sync), and SHIFT clicked the "Reload Frame" option. The frame then refreshed properly.
Kirk
Posted 2009-12-31T15:29:52.990
Reputation: 31
Didn't work for me – Coops – 2012-11-12T16:31:10.447
3
To clear the explicitly specified application cache navigating to chrome://appcache-internals/ on chrome and removing the cache for specific web sites.
Lord Loh.
Posted 2009-12-31T15:29:52.990
Reputation: 896
Install the "Clear Cache Shortcut" extension. – Ross Rogers – 2018-10-05T21:37:06.917
19CTR + R then CTRL + F5, once or twice - usually sorts the problem out. Or disable cache in Developer Tools -> Sprog (botom right) -> Network - Disable Cache.. reload the page and try disable that. – Piotr Kula – 2012-01-23T17:19:25.970
1
Great new feature added to Chrome for forcing a hard refresh - http://superuser.com/a/512833/92862
– Coops – 2012-11-30T12:46:56.920