How to Hard Refresh Browser: Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Opera, or Safari
Anyone using a web browser probably knows about the benefits of having cached data stored since it helps load pages faster.
The only problem is that sometimes web pages go through changes that are too minor for the browser to notice, and you end up with web page loading errors.
This is because when you load the page, the data that was stored in the browser’s cache is no longer the same as what the page is feeding it at that moment, resulting in errors.
When this happens, you have one of three options:
- Perform a complete browser reset
- Perform a complete clear cache, along with clearing your browser’s history
- Perform a hard refresh on the web page that has issues
Since the last option is the least destructive in terms of saved data, we’ve created this step-by-step article where we will showcase exactly how you can use a hard refresh on your web browser.
How To Hard Refresh Browser?
Keybindings are a fast way of performing hard refreshes, and the exact keybindings used for hard refreshes is similar to that of a regular refresh:
Hard Refresh Chrome (Works on Mac, too)
Method 1
- Launch Google Chrome, and open a web page of your choosing
- Hold down Ctrl, and press Shift + F5.
Method 2
- Open a web page
- Press Ctrl + Shift + C
- You can also right-click on an empty area of the page and select Inspect
- Pressing F12 also works
- Press the refresh button for a longer period of time
- A new drop-down menu will appear under the refresh button
- Select Hard Reload or Empty Cache and Hard Reload
Note that this method works with the Mac version of Chrome as well.
Hard Refresh Edge, Firefox, Opera
- Launch your web browser, and open a web page of your choosing
- Hold down Ctrl, and press F5.
From a visual standpoint, performing a hard refresh will be just like hitting regular refresh, albeit the webpage’s reload time may be slightly longer.
Once the page reloads, it will be with fresh new cached data, and there is a high chance that the entire page’s layout may be much different from before.
All other browsers, especially those that are Chromium-based, function similarly, so make sure you try Ctrl+F5 or Ctrl+Shift+F5 on them as well, since one of the two will surely work.
Hard refresh Safari
Method 1
- Launch Safari, and open a web page of your choosing
- Press Command(⌘)-Option-R
Method 2
- Launch Safari, and open a web page of your choosing
- Hold down the Shift key and click on the refresh button
Hard Refresh: is it worth using?
A hard refresh is basically like your regular refresh, only you reset all the stored data for that web page only.
Because of this, you can just as well use the hard refresh function instead of the regular refresh without fearing it may affect your browsing experience in any way.
In fact, if it’s been a long time since you visited a certain page, a hard refresh might actually be called for.
Have you fixed any website loading issues by using the hard refresh function? Tell us if it helped you out with your problems by leaving your feedback in the comments section below.
