Eclipse: How do I refresh an entire workspace? F5 doesn't do it

Question

I have a workspace with a bunch of java projects. If I go to File->Refresh, it doesn't really refresh anything (perhaps the currently selected project). How do I get eclipse to refresh all of the projects?

See also: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1212633/can-eclipse-refresh-resources-automatically/1212650#1212650 — Drew Stephens, Feb 22 '11 at 17:33

score 108 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 25 '10 at 18:53

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It will indeed only refresh the current project (or, more specifically, the current selection in the project explorer). I just click somewhere in the project explorer, do Ctrl+A to select all projects and then press F5 to achieve a complete refresh.

answered Mar 25 '10 at 18:53

BalusC

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Ok, thanks, but note that doing the above in the "Project Explorer" doesn't work (refresh is grayed out), but doing it in the "Package Explorer" it worked fine. – Jack Mar 25 '10 at 19:47
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Problem with this is though, that if any of my projects are closed (which is all the time), the Refresh option does not appear. The only way Ctrl+A followed by F5 works for me is if all my projects are open. – Matt Feb 21 '11 at 10:19
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@Matt: My Project Explorer is configured to hide closed projects. They are only visible in Navigator. You might want to do the same. – BalusC Feb 21 '11 at 10:23
I guess this is the only way? but it is not elegant. requires opening all projects. – Trevor Boyd Smith Jun 10 '11 at 17:07
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@Trevor: no as BalusC said you can hide closed projects... again which is not always desirable.. What I ended up doing is actually set "Top Level Elements" to Working Sets which are never closed, so Ctrl+A always works... as well as keeping my workspace more organised..especially with the Dynamic Working Sets plugin(which means no maintenance after setting up some regexes). – inger Jan 04 '12 at 17:01
@Matt: I get around this by doing Ctrl+A, then holding Ctrl left-click closed projects to exclude them. Then it works. – user443854 Feb 09 '12 at 14:44
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If you go the filter out closed project route, the instructions to do that are here http://help.eclipse.org/indigo/index.jsp?topic=%2Forg.eclipse.jst.j2ee.doc.user%2Ftopics%2Fcjviewfilters.html – Everett Toews Sep 19 '12 at 15:15
Note that _ctrl-a_ does not always work in Project explorer, [bug 281966](https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=281966). Either select (all) items by ctrl/shift or select none, then press F5, as described in other answer(s). – David Balažic Jul 15 '14 at 13:19
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This answer of selecting **all** projects in the explorer and hitting _F5_ seems strictly inferior to the answer by @blackburn below, of selecting **none**. Because selecting none will work even if there are closed projects and it will also refresh the workspace itself. – leorleor Feb 17 '15 at 21:22
You should collapse all projects in Project Explorer to be able to refresh them. If you have any uncollapsed project and then use `Ctrl + A` to select all, the refresh will be disappear. – Arashsoft Mar 03 '16 at 15:38
This crashed my Eclipse. – Noumenon Oct 14 '16 at 14:14
8 years later, I'm using Oxygen and this answer still holds. Thanks much! – Hildy Apr 17 '18 at 04:49

score 43 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 24 '12 at 09:11

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If you want to refresh all Projects, ignoring closed projects, then the easiest way is to:

ctrl-click and item in the Project Explorer (to ensure the P. Explorer has focus)
ctrl-click the item again so that it's no longer highlighted (but the P. Explorer still has focus)
F5 will now Refresh the entire workspace

Effectively F5 refreshes the Workspace when a navigation view has focus and nothing is selected.

answered Jan 24 '12 at 09:11

James Blackburn

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This worked well for me on a Mac substituting cmd-click for ctrl-click – Traveler Sep 10 '14 at 00:20
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This is a great workaround for when you have many projects and folders (since ctrl-A right-click doesn't allow refresh if folders are selected) – kotoole Feb 02 '17 at 19:28

score 16 · Answer 3 · answered Mar 25 '10 at 18:54

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Ctrl-A, then F5.

You can set up the workspace to automatically refresh when it detects changes in the preferences. (Window > Preferences > General > Workspace > Refresh Automatically)

answered Mar 25 '10 at 18:54

Mike Daniels

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score 10 · Answer 4 · answered Mar 19 '13 at 20:53

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Easy.

Create an external tool: Run > External Tools > External Tools Configuration...
Create a new Program configuration Point the location to an exe that is very fast (I use Cygwin's 'ls')
On the Refresh tab, choose Refresh Resources upon completion, The Entire Workspace
On the Build tab, deselect Build before launch

Run the tool to refresh all projects.

answered Mar 19 '13 at 20:53

Crunch

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on windows i've used "C:\Windows\twunk_32.exe" doesn't seem to hurt :) – iTake Jan 10 '14 at 12:55
How can I know if the refresh is complete? – srrvnn Dec 10 '14 at 19:46
This is great! I'm now able to type cmd-3 echo (because I used /bin/echo as the command) and immediately refresh, making it much less of a burden to skip the performance-wrecking autobuilds. Because it gets a menu item, it could also go in a quicksilver trigger or similar setup, so it could be a global keystroke from outside eclipse. – Joshua Goldberg May 29 '15 at 20:02
This led me to something even simpler: cmd-3 build all. (posting as an answer) – Joshua Goldberg Jun 01 '15 at 17:30
Apologizing for the noise: I've found I have to refresh first and then build. Neither alone is sufficient. (I'd mistakenly thought both actually, that refreshing triggered builds, and that building would start with a refresh. Neither is true.) I use an external tool config with a refresh hook first, and then cmd-3 build all. – Joshua Goldberg Jun 04 '15 at 17:30

score 6 · Answer 5 · answered Mar 25 '10 at 18:52

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Control click all your projects together, then right click and hit refresh.

Usually I refresh all like that, then i make sure to clean all projects and rebuild in eclipse.

answered Mar 25 '10 at 18:52

Felix Khazin

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score 2 · Answer 6 · answered Feb 25 '13 at 13:58

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For anyone curious how to select all of those projects on OS X where Ctrl+A doesn't work:

Click the first project
Hold down Shift
Hold the ↓ key until they are all selected
Now press F5

answered Feb 25 '13 at 13:58

Brad

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OS X's analogue of `Ctrl+A` is `⌘+A`, which does select all. – Max Nanasy Jun 05 '13 at 02:00
It works for me inconsistently (I sometimes have to click around the Project Explorer a few times first). – Max Nanasy Jun 05 '13 at 05:37

score 2 · Answer 7 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:26

This answer led me to an even simpler solution, no configuration necessary.

Cmd-3 build all (control-3 on windows)

Edit: Correction -- I need to both refresh and build. Build does not automatically refresh. I'm currently using two actions, "echo" from my comment in the linked answer I just referred to (an External Tool configuration with a hook to refresh all), followed by cmd-3 "build all"

Eclipse: How do I refresh an entire workspace? F5 doesn't do it

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