If you are a web developer, you might have faced this issue before. You upload all your files to your server, you visit your website, but, it still shows the old files and your changes do not appear.
Another scenario is that, you cannot see the changes on your own machine, but you can see the changes on a different one.
It is also possible that you cannot see the changes on all devices that are connected to the same network, but you can see the changes when you are connected to a different network.
So, how to solve this issue? Well, let us go through these simple steps, hopefully one of them will solve your issue. We will start with the simple cases before we cover the odd ones.
Use (Ctrl + F5) Instead of (F5) Alone
If you cannot see the changes, the most basic thing to do is to request a fresh copy from the server. How to do this? Well, simply, just press (Ctrl + F5) to refresh the page instead of (F5), this will tell your server to send a fresh copy.
Clear Browser Cache
If this does not work, you might need to clear your browsing history and all cached files. This depends on your browser.
If you are using Firefox, you can go to Firefox, History, Clear Recent History, and make sure that (Cache) is selected.
If you are using Chrome, you can go to the top right corner and find the icon with the horizontal lines. Click it, go to settings. On the left side menu, select History, Clear All Browsing Data, and make sure that (Empty The Cache) is selected.
Wait for Server Changes to Propagate
If you are still unable to see your changes, it might be that you have moved your website to another server, if that is the case, note that server changes could take up to 48 hours to propagate properly.
So, you might just wait for a while and see if that solves your issue.
Flush Your DNS Records
If you are still unable to see the changes, your computer could be still pointing to an old DNS. To solve this, you should flush your DNS records.
You can do this in Windows by opening your command line and type: (ipconfig /flushdns).
Use Third Party DNS Servers
If all the above did not solve your issue, this could be related to your Internet Service Provider (ISP). Some service providers cache results for up to 72 hours. I have had the same issue with a local company here once. So, if this is the case, you can go around your ISP cached content. To do this, you can use a third party DNS server. I prefer using OpenDNS. Their servers are fast, reliable, and safe to use.
You can use their DNS servers by changing your DNS IP address to their address, clear your browser cache, flush your DNS, disable and then enable your network device again, and you are ready to go.
I think this is it for this post. If you found this article useful, please share it around. If you have any more tips or questions regarding this topic, please drop us a line!
