The Google Chrome web browser supports multiple options when it comes to reloading or refreshing a web page.

The reload button is probably the most popular choice when it comes to reloading web pages considering that it is the only option visible in the browser's UI.

But clicking on the button is not the only option that Chrome users have. The Chrome keyboard shortcuts listing over on the Google website includes two reload options for instance: normal reload and hard reload.

What's the difference between normal and hard reloads in Chrome, and is there a third option? Let's find out.

Chrome reload options

Google Chrome supports three different reload functions:

Normal reload

Hard reload

Hard reload with cache clearing

Normal reload is the most straightforward function to explain. You activate it with a click on the reload button or with the keyboard shortcuts F5 or Ctrl-R.

Google Chrome uses the cache of the browser in this case but will validate the cached files during page load to make sure only resources that the server returns a 304 not modified response for are loaded from cache.

Hard reload is not exposed directly in the UI of the browser. You activate the function with the keyboard shortcut Ctrl-Shift-R, Shift-F5, or by holding down Shift before you activate the reload button.

Chrome ignores the cache and will load all resources from the web page again.

Google Chrome supports a third reload option and a somewhat hidden reload menu as well. You need to open the browser's Developer Tools with the keyboard shortcut F12 first as it is a prerequisite for it.

Right-click on the reload button afterward to display the reload menu. It includes the empty cache and hard reload option that you may use. What it does, is clear the browser cache before the hard reload is activated.

You may ask yourself what benefit the clearing of the cache has as hard reloads bypass the cache. The method takes situations into account where web pages may download additional content using JavaScript or other means that are not part of the initial page load process. These resources may be cached and as a consequence may be loaded from cache even if you do a hard reload.

Tip: Most web browsers support regular reloads and reloads that bypass the cache. The keyboard shortcuts mentioned above should work in most of them.

Usage

When is it appropriate to use a hard reload or a hard reload with cache clearing? Hard reloads are useful if you want that all resources are downloaded from the browser. This may be in expectation of an update, during development or corruption of the cache.

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Summary Article Name Google Chrome: hard reload vs. normal reload Description The Google Chrome web browser supports multiple options when it comes to reloading or refreshing a web page. But, what is the difference between hard and normal reloads, and how do you activate these options? Author Martin Brinkmann Publisher Ghacks Technology News Logo

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