If you are not seeing updates and/ or your website is not displaying properly, here are options for how to fix the issue on your desktop / laptop computer.
Options to try when your website is not properly displaying:
- Refresh your browser
- Clear browser Cache (history) and Cookies
- Restart your computer
NOTE: if using an iPad, iphone or Android, see this FAQ:
How do I clear the cache on my iPad, iPhone or Android device?
Refresh
Refreshing your internet browser window depends on which browser you use, such as Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Safari, Internet Explorer, Microsoft Edge etc.
When you refresh your page you should see the latest updates. This is especially handy when editing your site.
Quick Hard Refresh
Windows/PC: (Chrome, Edge, Firefox) Control + Reload button -or- CTRL/F5 -or- CTRL/Shift/R (or CTRL/F5)
Mac/Apple: (Chrome, Edge, Firefox) Command/Shift/R
Safari: Command/Option/R
(The latest MS Edge is like Chrome now.)
See How to hard refresh your browser and clear your cache
Individual Browser Refresh Icon Location
Chrome: Page refresh is the circular arrow icon - top left - to the right of the back/forward buttons - says Reload this page when hovered over.
Firefox: Page refresh is a circular arrow up top, right of the address bar - says Reload current page when hovered over.
Safari: Page refresh is a gray arrow in a circle at the top of the screen that says Stop/ Refresh.
Microsoft Edge: Circular arrow, upper left, says Refresh when hovered over.
Internet Explorer: It's the Refresh icon - next to your address bar at the top of the screen that has two small green arrows. (We highly recommend you upgrade to Edge.)
Clear Cache / Cookies
The steps to clear cache and cookies vary depending upon what internet browser and what version you use.
When a browser gets updated, the procedure for clearing cache and cookies can change.
When clearing cache and cookies, make sure not to check any options for clear stored passwords.
Clearing cache will not affect your passwords, nor will it stop your computer from auto-filling in forms (unless you choose these options! Please be sure to read carefully).
Clearing cookies will log you out of any sites you're logged into.
This page: REFRESH YOUR CACHE
provides info on how to clear cache in various browser version.
NOTE: browsers update their versions on a regular basis. If this info does not help you with your particular browser, do a search for "clear cache {{browser name and version}}"
(replace {{browser name and version}} with your info).
- Firefox:
- Safari
- Internet Explorer
Clear All Cookies And Site Data in Brave
- Click on the Menu icon in the top right
- go to Settings
- Additional settings → Privacy and Security → Clear browsing data
A quicker way to get to this page would be to enter brave://settings/clearBrowserData into your address bar
See Advanced for a breakdown of the data you can clear
- Deselect Browsing history and Cached files (if you only want to clear cookies) Click Clear data
- Go to Settings towards the bottom.
- On the left-hand side, expand Additional Settings.
- Click on Privacy and security.
from Brave Help Center: How Do I Clear Cookies And Site Data In Brave?
| NOTE: We highly recommend using any browser other than Internet Explorer with our software. Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, DuckDuckGo & Microsoft Edge work great. They're free, and you can use multiple browsers on your computer. |
Restart
Doing a Restart / Reboot of your computer is often a simple fix for mystery issues.
The Back Story
For unexplainable reasons, other than by saying 'stuff happens', the cache on any computing device can sometimes get confused even without having made an update to the website. This seems to happen to most internet browsers, and at random times.
Computers and mobile devices will, on occasion, display a cached (older) version of the page. This is what computers do to speed processing time, bringing the page to your screen from your computer or mobile device's cache instead of getting it fresh from the web.
It's not always a caching problem, but since it happens often enough, "clear your browser cache" is often one of the first diagnostic steps you'll hear from support personnel, and not just FASO.
Clearing your browser cache can solve many issues.
We suggest a web search of the name of your browser and 'clear cache' if you're unsure of how to perform this operation.
06142023