One of the most common support issues we get is that changes aren't being reflected on peoples' sites. This is a caching issue, 99% of the time, and not related to the theme.
It's especially common after updating a theme.
Caches operate at multiple levels - you can have a hosting-based cache, a software/plugin cache, a CDN (eg. cloudflare) cache, and a browser-based cache.
Hosting cache
Good hosting companies have a caching system that works with popular caching software, like WP Rocket. Good hosting companies include:
- WPEngine
- GetFlywheel
- Cloudways
- Liquidweb
- Bigscoots
- Agathon
If you're not on one of these, please reach out to your host directly for support.
Software cache
WP Rocket is professionally maintained and works with most hosts to clear both their own software-level cache and the hosting-level cache when you update a post.
However, when you update a theme, you have to perform a full cache refresh so that the old files are purged (eg. your CSS, javascript), and the new files are re-cached.
See WP Rocket's guide to clearing your cache.
Update: WP Rocket 3.6.1 introduced per-page-critical-path-css which may also need to be cleared.
If you find clearing your cache difficult, please reach out to your caching plugins support and ask for assistance. They need to be aware of poor user experiences.
Autoptimize
With properly configured WP Rocket, we've seen Autoptimized provide zero benefit.
Only problems with caching and minification.
We recommend uninstalling Autoptimize and do not provide support for sites that have it installed.
Minification
We don't recommend minifying HTML, CSS or Javascript, but some people do this.
You'll need to make sure you rebuild your minification after changing any of these.
CDN cache
We don't have the knowledge or experience necessary to provide guidance with clearing CDN caches. Please reach out to your CDN provider directly.
Browser cache
There are multiple steps that can be taken to clear your browser cache. In order of simplicity they are:
- Perform a "hard refresh" (cmd + r on mac, ctrl + r on windows)
- Log out of your admin, and log back in
- Check your site in an incognito browser window
- Clear your cookies (Google "how to clear your cookies" + browser if you don't know how to do this)
- Close all your browsers down and restart the computer