Website changes not showing? Clear the LiteSpeed, Cloudflare and browser caches

You've updated a page, saved it, and the live site still shows the old version. Or one page (often the homepage) looks out of date while every other page is fine. Almost every time, this is a cache serving a saved copy of the page. Nothing is broken, and the fix usually takes a minute.

There can be up to three caches between your website and your visitors. Work through them in this order.

Quick check: is it a cache?

• Open the page in a private or incognito window, or on your phone using mobile data. If it looks right there, it's your browser's cache (see step 3).
• Compare the page with a copy that isn't cached. For example, if yourdomain.co.nz/ is out of date but yourdomain.co.nz/home/ shows your changes, the homepage is being served from a cache.
• Add something to the end of the address, such as ?test=1. Most caches treat this as a new page, so if it shows your changes, a cache is the cause.

Step 1: Clear the LiteSpeed cache on our server

Our servers run LiteSpeed, which can keep a ready-made copy of each page so your site loads faster. On WordPress this is controlled by the LiteSpeed Cache plugin. See WordPress LiteSpeed Cache plugin setup.

If the LiteSpeed Cache plugin is active:

1. Log in to your WordPress dashboard.
2. Hover over the LiteSpeed Cache icon in the black admin bar at the top of the screen and click Purge All.
3. Reload the page in a private window.

The plugin normally clears the right pages by itself when you save a change, so you shouldn't need to do this often. If you're making lots of design changes, purge once when you're finished.

If you've turned the plugin off (or can't log in to WordPress):

This is the one that catches people out. If the LiteSpeed Cache plugin is deactivated, copies of pages that were cached before can keep being shown, because the plugin is no longer there to clear them when you save. To fix it:

1. Go to Services → My Services (https://www.hooplahosting.co.nz/client/clientarea.php?action=services), open your hosting service and click Log in to cPanel.
2. Type LiteSpeed in the cPanel search bar and open LiteSpeed Web Cache Manager.
3. Find your website in the list and click Flush LSCache.

Then decide whether you want caching:

• Yes: reactivate the LiteSpeed Cache plugin, so it keeps the cache up to date for you.
• No: leave the plugin off, and remove the block that starts with # BEGIN LSCACHE and ends with # END LSCACHE from your site's .htaccess file (in File Manager, click Settings and tick Show Hidden Files to see it). Download a copy of .htaccess before you edit it.

If you can't see LiteSpeed Web Cache Manager, or you'd rather we did it, open a support ticket with the page address and we'll clear the server cache for you.

Step 2: Clear the Cloudflare cache (if you use Cloudflare)

If your domain's DNS is on Cloudflare with the orange cloud (proxy) turned on, Cloudflare may also be keeping a copy of your pages, especially if you've set up a "Cache Everything" rule.

1. Log in to Cloudflare and choose your domain.
2. Go to Caching → Configuration.
3. Click Purge Everything (or Custom Purge to clear just one page) and confirm.

While you're working on the design, you can also turn on Development Mode on the same page. It bypasses Cloudflare's cache for three hours, then switches itself off.

Clear the LiteSpeed cache before Cloudflare's. Otherwise Cloudflare can fetch the old page from our server again and cache it all over again.

Step 3: Clear your browser cache

Your own browser keeps copies too. Do a hard refresh:

• Windows: Ctrl + F5 or Ctrl + Shift + R
• Mac: Cmd + Shift + R
• Phone: open the page in a private tab, or clear the browser's history and website data in its settings.

Other caching plugins

If your site uses another caching or optimisation plugin, such as WP Rocket, W3 Total Cache, WP Super Cache or Autoptimize, clear that too. Running two page-caching plugins at once often causes exactly this problem, so we recommend using just one. On our servers, LiteSpeed Cache is the best fit.

Still seeing the old version?

• Make sure the domain actually points to our servers. If you've recently moved your site to us, or changed nameservers, some visitors may still be seeing the old host for a few hours. See How long does it take to get my domain working?
• Check you're editing the right site. If you have a staging copy or more than one WordPress install, it's easy to update the wrong one.

If none of this helps, open a support ticket from Support → Open Ticket. Tell us the address of the page that's out of date and what you changed, and we'll track down where the old copy is coming from.