What is Cache?
When you use are on a website, pieces of code, images, site files, login sessions or cookies are being collected by your web browser (Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, Opera, Safari) to quicken load times when you go back to those same pages. As you use a site over time these sit in your browser and slowly build up and can eventually cause problems.
When changes are made to the website, if those parts of the website are cached, your browser will load the old versions from its site data files and you won't see an accurate version of your website that new clients who have never loaded your website will see.
Below is the guide for the several steps you should follow to ensure all cached data is cleared for your site.
** Important Note **
If you are logged into your website or your are in the middle of processing a quote, then doing any of the following can cause you to become logged out and your login session will expire. This means the quote will dump and you will have to either recall the session in the admin panel or start again. Only use these tips when you are not quoting, processing files, updating prices or running admin functions.
Note: the below examples are done for Windows OS and Google Chrome Version 86.0.4240.75 (Official Build) (64-bit)
Article Sections
2. Empty Cache and Hard Reload
3. Clear Browsing Data and Cookies
4. Clear History, Site Data, Cookies (Purge Everything) for a single site
1. Quick Refresh
The quickest and simplest method to clearing your cache is to press Ctrl + F5 on Windows. This does a soft refresh but doesn't completely purge your browser data.
2. Empty Cache and Hard Reload
Click on the Three Dots in the Top Right Hand Corner >> More Tools >> Developer Tools
Right Click on the Refresh Icon to the left of the address bar and select Empty Cache and Hard Reload
(If you are not in developer mode this option will not appear)
3. Clear Browsing Data and Cookies
Click on the 3 Dots in the Top Right Hand Corner >> More Tools >> Clear Browsing Data
OR Press Ctrl + Shift + Del
Select Advanced
Select a Time range depending on how much browsing data you want to clear.
Select the types of browsing data you want to clear.
Select Clear Data.
Note: If you delete all browsing data for all All Time - You will be logged out of every single site that you were signed in on. Auto-fill password, payment and address data will be cleared. If the issues only recently occurred or if an error came up while you were processing files or running admin functions on your website you will only want to clear the last hour or 24 hours. It is rare that you would ever need to select 'All Time'
4. Clear History, Site Data, Cookies (Purge Everything) for a single site
Click on the 3 Dots in the Top Right Corner
Scroll down to Privacy and Security and go to Site Settings
Go down to Site Settings and Select Cookies and site data
Select See all cookies and site data
Search the URL for your website and select Remove All Shown
5. Check Browser DNS Cache Settings
If it’s still not working then it may be your browser DNS cache settings that need to be tweaked.
In Chrome browser, you can visit: “chrome://net-internals/#dns” (type it in browser URL) and press the “Clear host cache” button.
If using Firefox you can type “about:config” click “I’ll be careful, I promise!” button, and search for “network.dnsCacheExpirationGracePeriod“, change the vaue to “0” (zero), refresh the browser(maybe better to restart browser) and after DNS cleared, set it back to original value “2592000“.
6. Windows DNS Flush
Open Command Prompt
Enter 'ipconfig /flushdns' and press 'Enter'
SSL and Firewall Cache
If your site has a private SSL (Secure Socket Layer) certificate security or if you are on Gun Web's Firewall then there is the chance that items will become cached in the Firewall as well. There are two things to do if this applies to you and you are experiencing issues.
Clear Local Cookies from SSL Icon
Click on the padlock icon in the address bar and select Cookies
Select the Cookies in use and press 'Remove'
Contact Gun Web to Clear the Firewall Cache
You can contact us at help@gunwebsystems.com.au
Tell us a little bit about the issue you are experiencing, send some screenshots and request that we clear the Firewall Cache (If you contacted us prior and we know you are on the Firewall we will usually do this before it is requested anyway.)
If you are not on the Firewall that Gun Web manages and want to know more you can email help@gunwebsystems.com.au for more information.
WordPress Cache
If you are experiencing issues on your Wordpress site, or if you have one of our websites with a Wordpress frontend you may have a plugin that is caching files in Wordpress. These files create a whole new type of issue because your web browser and our Firewall cannot access these files to clear the cache and it has to be cleared in the backend on the Wordpress site.
For issues like this, more often than not, it is best to contact Gun Web Systems at help@gunwebsystems.com.au to have us investigate the issue before clearing the Wordpress cache. We will usually take a backup of the website before taking any actions because certain cache clearing plugins can do more harm than good and will often need to be used alongside our Firewall cache clearing functionality.
WP-Optimize
If your site is running WP-Optimize you have the Cache section where you can purge cache
This option will be at the top of your dashboard too
WP-Rocket Cache Warning
If you are using something like WP-Rocket - When you purge the Cache the plugin runs a function in the backend of the website which regenerates and reconnects all of the CSS files. You do not need to know exactly what CSS files are but it is important to know that they are responsible for the colours, layout, fonts, animations and other visual components of your website.
Clearing this cache without advising Gun Web can cause issues because the Firewall will need to cleared afterwards.
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