If you visit a website often, your web browser stores web page elements in a cache so you don’t have to re-download them each time you visit, making your browsing faster. These items can include photos, pages you’ve already viewed, or style sheets. In some cases when the site changes you may not be able to see the changes because you are actually viewing the cache. There are two ways to solve this problem: a full refresh, which bypasses the cache and loads the actual page as it is stored on the server, and clearing the cache, which is something you should do periodically anyway.
Pressing the F5 key can do a full refresh on a web page.
To refresh a website normally, press the “refresh” button, or the F5 key, or press the command key of your operating system, such as the Apple key or the Control key, and the letter R. To forcefully refresh, the command or the control key is held down while clicking the Refresh button or pressing F5. Alternatively, the user can hold down the Shift key, the command/control key, and the letter R. A full refresh will skip all cached files and display the web page as it currently appears on the server.
A full refresh can be useful to clean up forms and make sure you’re seeing the web page as it currently appears. Usually, even if your browser has a cached version of a web page, it will check the server for changes. However, sometimes technical issues confuse this communication, leaving the viewer with a confusing-looking site. This is especially common when making changes to style sheets, sometimes causing a page to display strangely.
If you’re seeing a web page that looks weird or glitchy, a full upgrade may be required. This is common on sites that are constantly updated, such as email and news sites. Occasionally fast updates confuse the browser, which returns to a cached version of the page. If a site seems strange to you, doing a full update may help resolve the issue. Full update is also very useful for web designers who want to make sure they are seeing the latest version of their work.
In your browser’s options menu, there is usually a tab to manage caching. You can set the size of the cache and also clear it. Clearing the cache will delete all previous saved versions of the websites you visit, which means you will have to re-download the entire page when you visit it. Clearing the cache takes longer than doing a full refresh and should only be done periodically, but can be beneficial if you are experiencing browser difficulties.
