How to hard refresh your browser and clear your cache

How to hard refresh your browser and clear your cache.

You may have noticed that when you return to a website you’ve visited before, it loads a faster than it did when you first visited it.  This is because you browser has stored a copy of the website on your computer.

Your browser does this because it is faster to display the website when it is stored locally, as opposed to downloading the website again.

Why do I need to hard refresh my browser cache?

Although storing pages to the browsers cache makes loading pages faster, it can mean that changes made to the website aren't always visible until you perform what's called a hard refresh. Many web design clients notice that when we make changes to their websites, they cannot see the changes when they visit the website a second time.

This is because they're viewed a copy of their website stored locally on their computers. In this case, you would need to hard refresh your browser to clear the cache and download the new content.

It is very easy to perform a hard refresh and these commands will vary depending on the browser and operating system you're using.

Using Chrome

Chrome and Windows:

To hard refresh on Google Chrome on Windows, there are two ways you can do it:

• Hold down Ctrl and click the Reload button.
• Or Hold down Ctrl and press F5.

Chrome and Mac:

To do a hard refresh on Google Chrome on Mac, there are two ways that you can do it:

• Hold down Shift and click the Reload button.
• Or Hold down Command, Shift and click the ‘R’ key.

Using Firefox

Firefox and Windows

To hard refresh on Firefox on Windows, there are also two easy hotkey commands you can use:

• Hold down Ctrl, Shift and the ‘R’ key.
• Or Hold down Ctrl and press F5.

Firefox and Mac

To hard refresh on Firefox on Mac, there are also two easy key combinations that you can use:

• Hold down Command, Shift and the ‘R’ key.
• Or Hold down Shift and press the reload button.

Using Safari

To hard refresh safari, there is one simple way to do it.

• Hold down the option and command key then press the ‘E’ key.

Using Internet Explorer

To hard refresh safari, there is one simple way to do it:

• Hold the Control key, press the F5 key.
• Or, hold the Control key, click the Refresh button.