how to clear or replace a cached image

Question

I know there are many ways to prevent image caching (such as via META tags), as well as a few nice tricks to ensure that the current version of an image is shown with every page load (such as image.jpg?x=timestamp), but is there any way to actually clear or replace an image in the browsers cache so that neither of the methods above are necessary?

As an example, lets say there are 100 images on a page and that these images are named "01.jpg", "02.jpg", "03.jpg", etc. If image "42.jpg" is replaced, is there any way to replace it in the cache so that "42.jpg" will automatically display the new image on successive page loads? I can't use the META tag method, because I need everuthing that ISN"T replaced to remain cached, and I can't use the timestamp method, because I don't want ALL of the images to be reloaded every time the page loads.

I've racked my brain and scoured the Internet for a way to do this (preferrably via javascript), but no luck. Any suggestions?

Answer 1

If you're writing the page dynamically, you can add the last-modified timestamp to the URL:

<img src="image.jpg?lastmod=12345678" ...

Answer 2

<meta> is absolutely irrelevant. In fact, you shouldn't try use it for controlling cache at all (by the time anything reads content of the document, it's already cached).

In HTTP each URL is independent. Whatever you do to the HTML document, it won't apply to images.

To control caching you could change URLs each time their content changes. If you update images from time to time, allow them to be cached forever and use a new filename (with a version, hash or a date) for the new image — it's the best solution for long-lived files.

If your image changes very often (every few minutes, or even on each request), then send Cache-control: no-cache or Cache-control: max-age=xx where xx is the number of seconds that image is "fresh".

Random URL for short-lived files is bad idea. It pollutes caches with useless files and forces useful files to be purged sooner.

If you have Apache and mod_headers or mod_expires then create .htaccess file with appropriate rules.

<Files ~ "-nocache\.jpg">
   Header set Cache-control "no-cache"
</Files>

Above will make *-nocache.jpg files non-cacheable.

You could also serve images via PHP script (they have awful cachability by default ;)

Answer 3

Contrary to what some of the other answers have said, there IS a way for client-side javascript to replace a cached image. The trick is to create a hidden <iframe>, set its src attribute to the image URL, wait for it to load, then forcibly reload it by calling location.reload(true). That will update the cached copy of the image. You may then replace the <img> elements on your page (or reload your page) to see the updated version of the image.

(Small caveat: if updating individual <img> elements, and if there are more than one having the image that was updated, you've got to clear or remove them ALL, and then replace or reset them. If you do it one-by-one, some browsers will copy the in-memory version of the image from other tags, and the result is you might not see your updated image, despite its being in the cache).

I posted some code to do this kind of update here.

Answer 4

Change the image url like this, add a random string to the querystring.

"image1.jpg?" + DateTime.Now.ToString("ddMMyyyyhhmmsstt");

Answer 5

I'm sure most browsers respect the Last-Modified HTTP header. Send those out and request a new image. It will be cached by the browser if the Last-Modified line doesn't change.

Answer 6

You can append a random number to the image which is like giving it a new version. I have implemented the similar logic and it's working perfectly.

<script>
var num = Math.random();
var imgSrc= "image.png?v="+num;
$(function() {
$('#imgID').attr("src", imgSrc);
})
</script>

Answer 7

I found this article on how to cache bust any file

There are many ways to force a cache bust in this article but this is the way I did it for my image:

fetch('/thing/stuck/in/cache', {method:'POST', credentials:'include'});

Answer 8

The reason the ?x=timestamp trick is used is because that's the only way to do it on a per image basis. That or dynamically generate image names and point to an application that outputs the image.

I suggest you figure out, server side, if the image has been changed/updated, and if so then output your tag with the ?x=timestamp trick to force the new image.

Answer 9

No, there is no way to force a file in a browser cache to be deleted, either by the web server or by anything that you can put into the files it sends. The browser cache is owned by the browser, and controlled by the user.

Hence, you should treat each file and each URL as a precious resource that should be managed carefully.

Therefore, porneL's suggestion of versioning the image files seems to be the best long-term answer. The ETAG is used under normal circumstances, but maybe your efforts have nullified it? Try changing the ETAG, as suggested.

Answer 10

Change the ETAG for the image.

Answer 11

Try this code snippet:

var url = imgUrl? + Math.random();

This will make sure that each request is unique, so you will get the latest image always.

Answer 12

Since most, if not all, answers and comments here are copies of parts the question, or close enough, I shall throw my 2 cents in.

I just want to point out that even if there is a way it is going to be difficult to implement. The logic of it traps us. From a logical stance telling the browser to replace it's cached images for each changed image on a list since a certain date is ideal BUT... When would you take the list down and how would you know if everyone has the latest version who would visit again?

So my 1st "suggestion", as the OP asked for, is this list theory.

How I see doing this is:

A.) Have a list that our dynamic and manual changed image urls can be stored.

B.) Set a dead date where the catch will be reset and the list will be truncated regardless.

C.0) Check list on site entrance vs browser via i frame which could be ran in the background with a shorter cache header set to re-cache them all against the farthest date on the list or something of that nature.

C.1) Using the Iframe or ajax/xhr request I'm thinking you could loop through each image of the list refreshing the page to show a different image and check the cache against it's own modified date. So on this image's onload use serverside to decipher if it is not the last image when it is loaded go to the next image.

C.1a) This would mean that our list may need more information per image and I think the obvious one is the possible need of some server side script to adjust the headers as required by each image to minimize the footstep of re-caching changed site images.

My 2nd "suggestion" would be to notify the user of changes and direct them to clear their cache. (Carefully, remove only images and files when possible or warn them of data removal due to the process)

P.S. This is just an educated ideation. A quick theory. If/when I make it I will post the final. Probably not here because it will require server side scripting. This is at least a suggestion not mentioned in the OP's question that he say's he already tried.

Answer 13

It sounds like the base of your question is how to get the old version of the image out of the cache. I've had success just making a new call and specifying in the header not to pull from cache. You're just throwing this away once you fetch it, but the browser's cache should have the updated image at that point.

    var headers = new Headers()
    headers.append('pragma', 'no-cache')
    headers.append('cache-control', 'no-cache')

    var init = {
      method: 'GET',
      headers: headers,
      mode: 'no-cors',
      cache: 'no-cache',
    }

    fetch(new Request('path/to.file'), init)

However, it's important to recognize that this only affects the browser this is called from. If you want a new version of the file for any browser once the image is replaced, that will need to be accomplished via server configuration.

Answer 14

Here is a solution using the PHP function filemtime():

<?php 
     $addthis = filemtime('myimf.jpg');
?> 
<img src="myimg.jpg?"<?= $addthis;?> >

Use the file modified time as a parameter will cause it to read from a cached version until the file has changed. This approach is better than using e.g. a random number as caching will still work if the file has not changed.

Answer 15

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/URI_scheme

Notice that you can provide a unique username:password@ combo as a prefix to the domain portion of the uri. In my experimentation, I've found that inclusion of this with a fake ID (or password I assume) results in the treatment of the resource as unique - thus breaking the caching as you desire.

Simply use a timestamp as the username and as far as I can tell the server ignores this portion of the uri as long as authentication is not turned on.

Btw - I also couldn't use the tricks above with a google map marker icon caching problem I was having where the ?param=timestamp trick worked, but caused issues with disappearing overlays. Never could figure out why this was happening, but so far so good using this method. What I'm unsure of, is if passing fake credentials will have any adverse server performance affects. If anyone knows I'd be interested to know as I'm not yet in high volume production.

Please report back your results.

Answer 16

To replace cache for pictore you can store on server-side some version value and when you load picture just send this value instead timestamp. When your image will be changed change it`s version.

Answer 17

When changing the image filename is not an option then use a server side session variable and a javascript window.location.reload() function. As follows:

After Upload Complete:

Session("reload") = "yes"

On page_load:

If Session("reload") = "yes" Then
    Session("reload") = Nothing
    ClientScript.RegisterStartupScript(Me.GetType), "ReloadImages", "window.location.reload();", True)
End If

This allows the client browser to refresh only once because the session variable is reset after one occurance.

Hope this helps.

Answer 18

In the event that an image is re-uploaded, is there a way to CLEAR or REPLACE the previously cached image client-side? In my example above, the goal is to make the browser forget what "42.jpg" is

You're running firefox right?

• Find the Tools Menu
• Select Clear Private Data
• Untick all the checkboxes except make sure Cache is Checked
• Press OK

:-)

In all seriousness, I've never heard of such a thing existing, and I doubt there is an API for it. I can't imagine it'd be a good idea on part of browser developers to let you go poking around in their cache, and there's no motivation that I can see for them to ever implement such a feature.

I CANNOT use the META tag method OR the timestamp method, because I want all of the images cached under normal circumstances.

Why can't you use a timestamp (or etag, which amounts to the same thing)? Remember you should be using the timestamp of the image file itself, not just Time.Now.
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but you don't have any other options.

If the images don't change, neither will the timestamp, so everything will be cached "under normal circumstances". If the images do change, they'll get a new timestamp (which they'll need to for caching reasons), but then that timestamp will remain valid forever until someone replaces the image again.

Answer 19

After much testing, the solution I have found in the following way.

1- I create a temporary folder to copy the images with the name adding time () .. (if the folder exists I delete content)

2- load the images from that temporary local folder

in this way I always make sure that the browser never caches images and works 100% correctly.

if (!is_dir(getcwd(). 'articulostemp')){
    $oldmask = umask(0);mkdir(getcwd(). 'articulostemp', 0775);umask($oldmask);
}else{
    rrmfiles(getcwd(). 'articulostemp');
}   
foreach ($images as $image) { 
    $tmpname = time().'-'.$image;
    $srcimage = getcwd().'articulos/'.$image;
    $tmpimage = getcwd().'articulostemp/'.$tmpname;
    copy($srcimage,$tmpimage);
    $urlimage='articulostemp/'.$tmpname;
    echo '  <img loading="lazy" src="'.$urlimage.'"/>   ';                  
}

Answer 20

try below solutions,

myImg.src = "http://localhost/image.jpg?" + new Date().getTime();

Above solutions work for me :)

Answer 21

I usually do the same as @Greg told us, and I have a function for that:

function addMagicRefresh(url)
{
    var symbol = url.indexOf('?') == -1 ? '?' : '&';
    var magic = Math.random()*999999;
    return url + symbol + 'magic=' + magic;
}

This will work since your server accepts it and you don't use the "magic" parameter any other way.

I hope it helps.

Answer 22

I have tried something ridiculously simple:

Go to FTP folder of the website and rename the IMG folder to IMG2. Refresh your website and you will see the images will be missing. Then rename the folder IMG2 back to IMG and it's done, at least it worked for me in Safari.