When you use your browser to visit a website, you would generally get the latest content available on that website. If you again visit the same web page or website, then you would expect the updated content to be displayed in the browser. Normally, the updated content on the same web page will be automatically displayed in the browser on your next visit to the same web page. But sometimes, you may notice that your browser does not show the updated contents of a web page or the website, and instead it continues to display the old contents. Even refreshing the page won’t help. How to rectify this problem?
In fact, when you browse the Internet, and view web pages, the files, images, pictures, sound, cookies, etc., associated with those web pages are stored by your browser on your computer in what is known as “cache” or “browser cache” (cache is nothing but the folder that stores temporary Internet files). This is done to speed up the display of web pages that you frequently visit since the next time you visit the same web page, the browser can open them from your computer instead of downloading those files, images, etc., again from the web. In fact, there are many parts of a web page that generally do not change or they change after considerable time. For example, the logo of a website would normally not change for months or may be years. Therefore, the browser will store the logo image on your computer. Next time when you visit the same web page or web site, the browser does not have to download the same logo again and it can use the logo already saved on your computer. It makes your browsing faster and moreover, it also saves your bandwidth. This is done by all browsers, including Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Safari, Opera, etc.
When the content on a web page is updated, the next time you visit the same web page, the browser comes to know that a newer version of the web page or an image or logo or sound file, etc., is available (by comparing the file versions); and, accordingly, the browser downloads the updated content from the web page, instead of using the stored content on your computer / laptop in the cache. Therefore, usually your browser will display the updated contents on your subsequent visits to a web page. However, sometimes, it does not happen. Even if you try to refresh the page, the browser still shows the same old content. This may be due to some problem in settings; your settings may not be correct, or cache might have got corrupted or there may even be some virus / malware trying to interfere with your browser working.
Let’s see how we can ensure that the web page is updated automatically as and when new content is available on it during your subsequent visits to it.
(A) Adjusting how often to update content from the web (change settings):
Do you want faster browser speed by loading files stored in cache of browser during previous visits to a web page, or, you want to get updated content every time since a web page might have changed after your last visit to it? In some browsers, you can customize how often the browser checks the web for updated contents on the pages visited by you. Internet Explorer gives you the full freedom to customize this option in an easy user-friendly manner. Firefox has the feature to customize this option, but it is not user-friendly and is hidden deep inside the configuration settings which you cannot edit unless you know where those settings are and you’ve some expertise doing it (I’ll be discussing the topic – how to change these configuration settings in Firefox – in a separate article, later). Google Chrome has no such customization settings at all.
Let’s see how to change the auto-update settings in Internet Explorer:
(1) Open Internet Explorer. On the Tools menu, click Internet Options. Or alternatively, on the toolbar, click on Tools button and from the drop-down menu, select Internet Options.
The Internet Options dialog box will open. Display the General tab, if it is not displayed already.
(2) If you’ve IE 6, on the General tab, in the Temporary Internet Files section, click the Settings button. This will open the Settings box.
If you’ve the latest version such as IE 8, in the Browsing history section, click Settings button. This will open the Temporary Internet Files and History Settings box, as shown below:
Now, in these settings, you’ll notice four different ways to check for newer / updated contents of web pages from the Internet that were earlier stored in the cache or the Temporary Internet Files folder. These are explained as under:
So, accordingly, you can select the option best suited to you for getting updated contents from the web.
(B) Refresh / Reload the web page by using F5 key or Ctrl + F5 keys:
If in spite of having proper settings for updating contents, you’re getting old information from the web page, you can manually refresh the web page.
For refreshing the currently displayed web page in your browser, press the F5 key or click on the Refresh / Reload button in your browser (in Firefox and Chrome, additionally you can also use Ctrl + R keys together for this action). This will make the browser to check for updated contents from the web page and download the same. So, any new information / updated content will be downloaded from the web.
If even pressing the F5 key or clicking on the Refresh / Reload button does not show the updated content, then you can try pressing Ctrl + F5 keys together (in Firefox, you can also use Ctrl + Shift + R keys together for this action; likewise, in Chrome, you can also use Shift + F5 keys together for this action). This will refresh the current webpage contents, even if the time stamp for the web version and your locally stored version in the cache are the same. Thus, this action will reload your current page, ignoring the contents stored in the cache. Or, you can say that your cache options are overridden with this action and a refresh or reload of the web page is forced.
(C) Clear the Cache of your browser:
To force updated contents being downloaded from the web instead of using the cache contents on your computer, you can clear the contents of the browser cache. This means that all the stored or downloaded files from various web pages will be deleted or cleared from the cache or the Temporary Internet Files folder. Moreover, clearing the cache also resets its index. All browsers give the options to easily clear the cache on your computer.
(D) Check for virus / spyware affecting your browser operations:
Sometimes, it may be possible that a virus / malware is interfering with your browser working that may be forcing it not to update contents from the web pages. So, try checking for malware or virus on your computer using some good anti-virus and/or anti-malware software.
Conclusion:
Generally speaking, using the aforesaid methods should solve the problem that the contents of the web pages are not updated when you visit those web pages again.
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