How to force refresh without cache in Google Chrome?

Question

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).

CTR + 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, Jan 23 '12 at 17:19
Great new feature added to Chrome for forcing a hard refresh - http://superuser.com/a/512833/92862 — Paul C, Nov 30 '12 at 12:46
[Install the "Clear Cache Shortcut" extension.](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/clear-cache-shortcut/jnajhcakejgchhbjlchkfmdidgjefleg) — Ross Rogers, Oct 05 '18 at 21:37

score 224 · Answer 1 · edited Mar 07 '18 at 20:48

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In the opened developer tools (Ctrl+Shft+I or ⌘+⌥+I):

Select the Network tab
Activate Disable cache check-box.
DO NOT CLOSE Developer tools - otherwise cache is re-enabled.

edited Mar 07 '18 at 20:48

Mark

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answered Mar 29 '12 at 20:29

Chris

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Doesn't work for me, had to use incognito. – Antony Stubbs Oct 18 '12 at 14:48
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But why is there no short-cut key to trigger this! – Paul C Nov 12 '12 at 16:32
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Note the cache is only disabled while Developer Tools are open. If you close it, your cache is active again. – Icode4food Dec 06 '12 at 16:15
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 Dec 17 '15 at 14:52
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In the newer developer tools (can be triggered by F12, too) the "Disable cache" setting can be found in the Network tab. – anre Apr 27 '16 at 17:35
Welcome to the year 2019. The "Disable Cache" checkbox in the dev window still does not reload JS / CSS files. – needfulthing Feb 12 '19 at 11:23
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 Jan 23 '20 at 17:13

score 220 · Accepted Answer · edited Aug 09 '13 at 23:33

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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:

[Issue: 94090]

edited Aug 09 '13 at 23:33

givanse

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answered Dec 31 '09 at 15:36

William Hilsum

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Looks 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 Dec 31 '09 at 16:16
@whitequark it seems necessary to do that step (Cmd+Shift+Delete on OSX) in order to clear the cached Flash XML. – sholsinger Jun 15 '11 at 16:17
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I 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 Sep 20 '11 at 07:36
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Haha Chrome is super-cached, the only way I can overcome it is hitting Shift + F5 at least two times (really). – Halil Özgür Jun 04 '12 at 10:15
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Chrome team should be embarrassed at such a bug sitting in the bug queue for over 2 years. I am very disappointed. – Brian Webster Oct 09 '12 at 10:46
Great new feature added to Chrome for forcing a hard refresh - http://superuser.com/a/512833/92862 – Paul C Nov 30 '12 at 12:46
ctrl + r seemed to be the only one that worked for me (windows) – Chris Owens Dec 06 '12 at 11:55
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Definitely not working. Chrome can just suck so badly some times. – iconoclast Jun 18 '13 at 17:43
Is this just not fixed in the official Google-Chrome or also not on the open source version? – Alex Jul 18 '13 at 17:47
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@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 Oct 04 '13 at 22:45
Scrap that, I can confirm 100% that incognito does use cached versions also. Argh! – Psyrus Oct 04 '13 at 23:15
@Alex I'm using Chromium and the bug seems present there as well (at least today). – skytreader Jun 23 '14 at 06:36
@Psyrus, I agree, _even with Chromium_. :C – skytreader Jun 23 '14 at 06:37
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 Sep 23 '14 at 20:48
Ctrl-F5... well try that with an iFrame you want to reload :/ – needfulthing Feb 12 '19 at 11:24

Arjan · Answer 3 · 2016-04-24T08:10:50.463

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.

Thanks for the great detailed answer. Possibly too technical for the audience but I value it greatly. — sholsinger, Jun 15 '11 at 16:17
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, Mar 14 '12 at 18:03
**BEWARE**, note a two year old, but still current bug in Chrome: [Chrome Forced Refresh does not ignore cache](http://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=44122). — Arjan, Sep 10 '12 at 17:18

score 22 · Answer 4 · edited Apr 09 '20 at 11:10

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UPDATE: This answer is outdated

Pull up console
Click in right-bottom to cog icon
Tick [General > Disable cache]
Reload page (however)!
Keep the developer tools open (UPDATE)

edited Apr 09 '20 at 11:10

Arjan

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answered Jul 18 '12 at 07:13

sobi3ch

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5. [Keep the developer tools open](https://twitter.com/ChromiumDev/status/227356682890670080). – Arjan Apr 01 '13 at 19:55
Great, in fact, even after i closed the devtool, it always clear cache. – diyism Sep 03 '14 at 09:34
This option is no longer in the console settings. – Robb Vandaveer Dec 04 '19 at 19:39
I rolled back my own edit, as this actually duplicates [Chris' March 2012 answer](https://superuser.com/questions/89809/how-to-force-refresh-without-cache-in-google-chrome/406331#406331). Please consider deleting this; you'll keep the reputation anyway. – Arjan Apr 09 '20 at 11:11

score 19 · Answer 5 · edited Sep 05 '16 at 12:43

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The question is a bit old, but in the recent version of Chrome

Open the Developer tools using F12 or Ctrl+Shift+I
Right-click the Refresh button, and select Empty cache and Hard reload

This 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 :-(

edited Sep 05 '16 at 12:43

Roel Spilker

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answered Nov 09 '12 at 12:52

Déjà vu

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Only works when Developer Tools are open, as you say Arjan. – mgkrebbs Nov 03 '13 at 04:50
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You can also hold SHIFT while clicking the refresh button – Bolli Jun 24 '14 at 21:11
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@Arjan Just FYI as of 2020 this is definitely not Windows-only, as I see the same feature on my Ubuntu VM. – Clonkex Apr 09 '20 at 00:58
Also works on Edge Chromium (probably all Chrome based browers) – Alex Oct 16 '20 at 11:42

Daniel Gill · Answer 6 · 2011-07-08T09:33:50.710

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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.

edited Jul 08 '11 at 09:33

answered Jul 08 '11 at 08:36

Daniel Gill

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You mean "re-open a incognito tab", not window, I suppose? – mgol Oct 11 '12 at 12:01
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Interesting, for me CTRL-SHIFT-N opens a new window, not just a tab - is that not always the case? – Daniel Gill Oct 11 '12 at 18:50

score 6 · Answer 7 · answered Sep 02 '10 at 04:23

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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.

answered Sep 02 '10 at 04:23

jwalker55

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Flash cache is something completely different from Chrome. – Joshua Sep 02 '10 at 05:13
@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 Jun 28 '12 at 00:14
@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 Jun 28 '12 at 14:03
@Joshua Oh, you're right, I didn't realise :) – Camilo Martin Jun 30 '12 at 16:03

score 6 · Answer 8 · edited Mar 14 '12 at 21:54

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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.

edited Mar 14 '12 at 21:54

Diogo

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answered Jun 03 '11 at 19:02

Gabe

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score 5 · Answer 9 · answered Jan 23 '12 at 17:13

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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.

answered Jan 23 '12 at 17:13

J Baron

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score 3 · Answer 10 · edited Jan 23 '12 at 18:07

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I did this: Right Click the FRAME (that was out of sync), and SHIFT clicked the "Reload Frame" option. The frame then refreshed properly.

edited Jan 23 '12 at 18:07

Mokubai

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answered Jan 23 '12 at 16:31

Kirk

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Didn't work for me – Paul C Nov 12 '12 at 16:31

score 3 · Answer 11 · answered Feb 10 '13 at 18:31

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To clear the explicitly specified application cache navigating to chrome://appcache-internals/ on chrome and removing the cache for specific web sites.

answered Feb 10 '13 at 18:31

Lord Loh.

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How to force refresh without cache in Google Chrome?

11 Answers11

UPDATE: This answer is outdated

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