Performing a deep-refresh of your browser

Sometimes, we will ask you to perform a deep refresh of your browser if we are helping you resolve a problem.

By default, browsers cache web pages on your device.  If your browser thinks the page is unchanged when you next visit the page, it will load the copy on your device, not the version on our server.  Even when you click refresh, your device version is compared to the web version.  No changes?  It loads your version - it saves bandwidth and is a lot faster.

The problem with this is that browsers can't always detect all changes.  For example: we might not change any of the page text or design, but we might change the underlying javascript for performing an action.  Browsers don't always detect that and, as a result, you will end up loading an outdated page stored on your device.

Deep refresh

A deep refresh forces your device to fetch the page from the server, regardless of whether any cached version seems up to date on your device.  This is why we sometimes ask you to do this, because cached pages can stick artound stubbornly!

It's very simple to perform, but it differs for each platform and browser.  For Windows and Linux, pressing Ctrl-F5 simultaneously is almost ubiquitous, but MacOS has different commands for different browsers: