The short answer
Open the page in a private or incognito window. If the change is there, your browser held an old copy: do a hard refresh (Ctrl+Shift+R on Windows, Cmd+Shift+R on a Mac) or clear that site's cached files. If it still looks old in a private window, the saved copy is on the site's side, and you should ask us to purge it.
What a cache is and why it exists
A cache is a saved copy. Building a web page from scratch takes time: the server runs code, reads a database and assembles the result. If a thousand people ask for the same page, it is wasteful to build it a thousand times. So the page is built once, saved, and handed out again until it expires or is cleared.
That is good for speed and bad for the moment right after an edit. The saved copy does not know you changed anything. It keeps serving the old version until it is told to stop or reaches the end of its time limit.
The four places a copy can hide
A page can pass through several layers of saving before it reaches your screen. Any of them can be the one that is stale.
| Layer | Where it lives | Who can clear it | Typical symptom |
|---|---|---|---|
| Browser cache | Your own device | You | Old version on your laptop, new version on a colleague's |
| Caching plugin | The WordPress site itself | Our team, or you if you have access | Everyone sees the old version, including private windows |
| CDN cache | Servers spread around the world | Our team | Old version in some countries or after a delay, new version elsewhere |
| Mobile cache | Your phone's browser or an in-app browser | You | Desktop is right, phone is old, especially in links opened from social apps |
A CDN, or content delivery network, keeps copies of your files on servers close to visitors so pages load faster. Cloudflare is a well-known one. Many Webtec sites also run a caching plugin on WordPress.
Step 1: the private window test
This takes ten seconds and tells you which side the problem is on.
- 1Open a private window (Incognito in Chrome, Private in Safari and Firefox).
- 2Paste the exact page address and load it.
- 3If you see the new version, your normal browser held an old copy. Go to step 2.
- 4If you still see the old version, the stale copy is further along the chain. Go to step 3.
Step 2: refresh your browser properly
An ordinary refresh often reuses saved files. A hard refresh asks the server for everything again. On Windows and Linux press Ctrl+Shift+R, on a Mac press Cmd+Shift+R. In Safari on a Mac, use Option+Cmd+E to empty caches and then reload.
If a hard refresh does not help, clear the saved files. In Chrome, open the three-dot menu, choose Delete browsing data, pick a time range, tick Cookies and other site data along with the cached files, and confirm. Google notes that this can sign you out of sites and that some pages may load more slowly the first time afterward. If you are signed in to Chrome with sync on, you stay signed in to your Google Account.
Clearing everything for 'all time' is rarely needed. Choosing the last hour or last 24 hours is usually enough to remove a copy saved today, and keeps you signed in elsewhere.
Step 3: when the site itself is serving the old copy
If a private window on another network still shows the old version, a caching plugin or a CDN is handing out the saved page. Clearing it is a one-click action for us, but the right action matters. A CDN such as Cloudflare lets its owner purge a single URL, purge everything, or purge by tags and prefixes, and Cloudflare itself recommends purging a single file when that is enough. Purging everything forces every page to be rebuilt, which can make the site briefly slower.
So when you ask us to clear the cache, name the page. 'The pricing page still shows the old price' lets us purge exactly that one. 'Clear everything' is a heavier tool, and not needed for a one-page change.
Why a change can look different on your phone
- Phones keep their own browser cache, separate from your computer. A fresh laptop view and an old phone view are normal.
- Links opened inside Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn or email apps use an in-app browser that may keep its own copy. Open the same link in Safari or Chrome directly.
- A mobile layout can be generated separately from the desktop one. If only the phone shows a problem, read site looks wrong on mobile.
- Saved shortcuts on your home screen can load an old snapshot of the site. Delete the shortcut and add it again.
How to tell stale cache from a real problem
A stale cache means the right content exists and you are seeing yesterday's copy. A real problem means the content is wrong or missing for everyone. The giveaway is the private window plus a second device on mobile data. If the new version appears on either, the change worked. If neither shows it, the change has not reached the live site, or a site-level cache is holding it.
Also check the type of change. Text edits and images are cached the most. Changes to form behavior or checkout should never be hidden by cache, and if a form still behaves the old way after a hard refresh, tell us rather than clearing more.
A worked example
Example: The price that would not update
A bakery asks for the Saturday loaf price to change from 6.50 to 7.00. The team confirms it is done. The owner still sees 6.50 on her laptop. She opens a private window and sees 7.00. A hard refresh fixes her normal browser. Her assistant, on a different network, also sees 7.00. Two hours later a customer reports 6.50 on her phone from an Instagram link. That is the in-app browser keeping its own copy. The fix for the customer is to open the link in the regular browser, and we purge that page on the site side so that future visitors are not affected. One edit, three different caches, none of them a failure of the work.
When to ask us
Ask when the new version shows in nothing you try: not in a private window, not on mobile data, not after a hard refresh. Also ask if only certain countries or networks see the old copy, because that points to a CDN.
Send the exact page address, a screenshot of what you see with the address bar visible, a screenshot or text of what you expected, the device and browser, and whether the private-window test showed old or new. Put it in one request through the support form. If you are not sure whether the change was ever made, check the request details in request a website update first.
