Hard refresh
Reloading a page while telling the browser to ignore its saved copies, so you get the newest version.
What it is
Browsers keep a cache: saved copies of files they've already downloaded, so pages load faster next time. Usually that's great. Right after a deploy, it can mean you're still looking at yesterday's version.
A hard refresh reloads and skips the cache: Cmd + Shift + R on a Mac, Ctrl + Shift + R on Windows. With DevTools open, you can also right-click the reload button and choose Empty Cache and Hard Reload.
It's the first thing to try when "I deployed the fix but nothing changed." If a hard refresh shows the fix, the code was fine all along.
How to ask for it
“Your fix didn't work, it still looks the same.”
“After your deploy, the header still shows the old logo. I did a hard refresh and also tried an incognito window, and it's still old in both. Check whether the new file is actually being served.”
Ruling out the cache first tells the agent the problem is real, not a stale copy in your browser.
You've seen this in
- E"Empty Cache and Hard Reload" when right-clicking Chrome's reload button with DevTools open
- N"Disable cache" checkbox in the Network tab
- SSupport advice to "clear your cache"