Firefox, OSX and Cache

By Arvind Satyanarayan on | Filed under Miscellaneous | Comments (10)

Ever since I made the switch to OS X the one thing that has continuously annoyed me is browser caching issues. Every browser I've tried, Firefox, Camino and Safari, seems intent on holding onto its cache no matter how many times I ask it to empty. On Firefox however, I've discovered this little trick that seems to clear a page's cache and reload the page.

  1. Download and install the ever useful Web Developer extension and restart Firefox.
  2. Browse to the page where you're facing the caching issues
  3. On the Web Developer toolbar, click Images and then Disable Images. The page will reload afresh (albeit with images disabled - you can reenable images and the page will once again reload afresh!)
It's a clumsy trick but it's the only thing I've found that works

10 Comments

Dan Wolfgang said:
on Jan 9, 2006 4:18 PM | Reply

I've been using a Mac/OSX at work for a while and had noticed that clearing the cache/refreshing often didn't seem to go quite right. I haven't gotten to investigate it at all, but I'm glad I'm not the only one!

Minh Nguyễn said:
on Jan 10, 2006 2:21 PM | Reply

So Shift+Reload won’t work in Firefox? I never really pay attention to that detail when I use a Mac every now and then, but thanks for the tip.

Arvind Satyanarayan said:
on Jan 10, 2006 9:08 PM | Reply

Ah I never knew about the Shift + Reload thing, still new to the Mac :) I guess that's the Windows equivalent of Ctrl + F5. Thanks for the info.

echo said:
on Jan 19, 2006 8:24 PM | Reply

Did you try using the DeveloperTools' Disable -> Diable Cache-Feature?

Mike Doyle said:
on Feb 3, 2006 8:17 PM | Reply

Caching issues are frequent with Firefox 1.5 under OSX (I use 10.4.4), even when selecting zero MB for the cache as I do. I found the simplest way around them (especially after a site rebuild of my blog) is simply to hit the refresh button. Perhaps the simple reload only works if you set cache to zero though.

I don't seem to have these issues when I use Safari to manage my posts.

bigbaldhead said:
on Mar 3, 2006 7:18 PM | Reply

I've gotta say I don't generally run into this issue; though, when I do I can remedy, it in all of the mentioned browsers, by simply adding a "?" at the end of the URL.

anonephant said:
on May 14, 2006 1:48 AM | Reply

shift+reload isn't Mac only, Windows does that too.

James said:
on Dec 22, 2006 8:25 PM | Reply

It's amusing that the Firefox cache works and you're complaining about it. Hold shift and reload if you want to force the HTTP header to signal a refresh. Not to mention, if the site can't be cached, the web developer should be using the no-cache META tag. Amateurs.

Arvind Satyanarayan said:
on Dec 23, 2006 10:51 AM | Reply

Hi James, no one is disputing Firefox's cache works. The problem I initially faced was that it was a bit reluctant to get rid of it and I didn't know of the shift reload trick either. Everyone starts somewhere :)

Eric Roberts said:
on Jan 19, 2007 10:27 PM | Reply

This is a problem for folks like me who develop web apps. When a page is cached and no amount of emptying the cache can force a refresh the only way I've found to REALLY empty the cache is to quit firefox and start it again. I have seen this problem on FF 1.5 and 2.0. Need to search the FF bugs to see if it's been brought to their attention.