It’s quite frustrating when it takes too long for a website to load. One of the main reasons for a website’s poor performance issues is a filled cache, or mismatched information in the cache.
To resolve this problem, you can try hard reloading the browser. By using some simple hotkeys, you can enjoy loading your website just as quickly as before.
Why Do We Need to Force a Hard Refresh?
When we make frequent changes on a web page, the caching process sometimes causes confusion. This may result in a change in the elements of a page, leading to loading problems while the browser still runs the older cached version of the site.
Hard refreshing the browser rectifies this problem and allows you to bypass the cache on your system. It re-downloads everything required for a webpage to function, ensuring users get the latest version of the webpage.
To ensure that only the up-to-date version of a site is downloaded, it’s good to clear the cache memory. This can be done by a force refresh. Some benefits of clearing cache with a force refresh include:
- Retrieving the newest data and updates available on the website.
- Resolving 404 and 502 errors.
- Freeing up space from your hard drive.
Important: It’s important to note that a hard refresh only bypasses the cache for a specific page, while leaving the rest of the browser unaffected. So, this method is good when you are facing problems with a single web page only. But, when you require to completely reset an entire site, it is recommended to clear the entire browser cache.
How to Hard Refresh Google Chrome
On Chrome, there are two methods to perform a hard refresh. Neither way is particularly difficult, you may just prefer one to the other.
First Method
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Launch Google Chrome and open a webpage of your choice.
- On the webpage, hold Ctrl and simultaneously press Shift + F5 for a few seconds to hard refresh the page.
Second Method
- Open a webpage of your choice.
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Press Ctrl + Shift + C. Alternately you can right-click on an empty area and select Inspect.
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Now press the reload button for a few seconds. A new drop-down menu will appear on the screen under the refresh button.
- Select Hard Reload or Empty Cache and Hard Reload.
By performing a hard refresh with the above-mentioned method, you will only bypass the cache for that specific page. The rest of the site browser’s cache will remain the same. It’s better to clear off the browser site cache entirely if you are having trouble with an overall site.
How to Hard Refresh Edge, Firefox, Opera, and Safari
Hard refreshing different browsers involves more-or-less the same process, with a few key differences.
Hard Refreshing Edge
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Open a web page on your browser.
- Now hold Ctrl, and simultaneously press F5
- When the page reloads, it will be fresh with new cache data. The new page layout may be different from before and will contain all the latest details.
Hard Refreshing Firefox
Hold the Shift key on your keyboard and simultaneously click the Reload button in Firefox. This will clear all cache in Firefox and hard refresh the webpage for you.
Hard Refreshing Opera
Press Ctrl + Reload option to start hard refresh a webpage of your choice in Opera.
Hard Refreshing Safari
Launch Safari and open a webpage. On the page, press Command-Option-R. The website will refresh with the cache cleared.
Hard Refreshes Can Speed Up Your Browser
Clearing the cache from your browser is the simplest way to resolve problems in a website. It’s good to understand that a hard refresh is just like a regular refresh, with the only change that you reset the stored data for a particular page only.
So, always remember to go for a Hard Refresh when you feel a website is running slower than usual.