Why is Chrome pulling old JS file?

Question

I've been having a crazy annoying problem for a few weeks that I can't seem to solve. Occasionally when I update the Javascript or CSS files for my site hosted on Siteground, Chrome will refuse to recognize them. Other browsers will pull the new files immediately if I empty the cache and refresh, Chrome will not.

I have:

Verified through cPanel file manager that the correct files are uploaded to my server.
Repeatedly emptied Chrome's cache.
Repeatedly used devtools "hard reload" and "empty cache and hard reload".
Repeatedly quit and reopened Chrome.
Completely turned off Chrome's cache through devtools.

Maddeningly enough, the problem seems to solve itself when I come back to it a few hours later. What am I missing here that is keeping Chrome from reading the new files?

That's definitely a caching issue. Have you tried [disabling Chrome's cache through the Network tab in DevTools](http://stackoverflow.com/a/7000899/2341603)? — Obsidian Age, Feb 12 '17 at 22:03
@ObsidianAge just tried that as well, still pulling old files. I have completely emptied the Chrome cache many, many times now yet it still won't update the files. — Dylan Stark, Feb 12 '17 at 22:06
If you have access to PHP, you can append the current timestamp to the version of the file, causing it to override the cache each time it is loaded -- `href="style.css?v="` — Obsidian Age, Feb 12 '17 at 22:13

score 10 · Answer 1 · answered Sep 28 '20 at 22:59

10

Had this problem as well, going into developer tools solved the problem.

open developer tools
click on the network tab
check the disable cache option, then uncheck it.

after doing this it then used the current version of my javascript file.

answered Sep 28 '20 at 22:59

Matthew Webster

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This was the only thing which worked for me, thank you! – Mirko Oct 30 '20 at 15:09

score 3 · Accepted Answer · edited Feb 14 '17 at 09:20

3

Sometimes the server itself is caching the responses for certain user agents (which distinguish what kind of browser you're using to the server), which may explain your issue.

I suggest trying to change your UA (user agent) through devtools to what you currently have in firefox/safari for example to see if the problem persists.

That's just one of the ways that the server may cache responses for certain browsers, as it may also change from other small implementation differences.

Check through your server's settings to see if something is being server-cached, or if the server is adding additional caching information through localStorage and similar, and then try to change those settings or the pieces of code that rely on client storages that aren't considered cache.

edited Feb 14 '17 at 09:20

Dylan Stark

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answered Feb 12 '17 at 22:38

towc

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Thank you, I was beginning to think it had to be something server side, I will spend some time today looking into this today. – Dylan Stark Feb 12 '17 at 22:52
and you can still inspect your localStorage and indexedDB on the client if that helps – towc Feb 12 '17 at 23:09
The boon is becoming nightmare if we do not know how to get benefited by it. – Vishal Kumar Sahu Feb 14 '17 at 09:23

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Jun 23 '21 at 21:14

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It wasn't the server (view-source showed current file) and no command or browser option I've found anywhere worked (including prior answers here).

What finally worked: create a new browser tab and debug from there.

answered Jun 23 '21 at 21:14

danorton

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Why is Chrome pulling old JS file?

3 Answers3