How to Clear WordPress Cache (and Why Changes Don’t Show)

You made a change in WordPress, saved it, and the live site still shows the old version. Almost every time, the change worked fine and you are looking at a cached copy of the page.

Most WordPress sites have several layers of cache stacked on top of each other: your browser, a caching plugin, the server, and often a CDN like Cloudflare. Each one can serve an old copy. To see your change, you need to clear them in the right order.

Why your changes don’t show up

A cache stores a finished copy of a page or file so it doesn’t have to be rebuilt for every visitor. That is what makes a site fast. The downside is that the stored copy doesn’t always know you changed something.

Common signs you are seeing cache, not a broken change:

• The change shows when you are logged in but not when you are logged out.
• It shows in a private or incognito window but not in your normal browser.
• It shows on your phone but not on your computer, or the other way around.
• CSS or design changes don’t apply, but text changes do.

If any of those match, work through the layers below from the outside in.

Quick fix: test in a private window first

Open the page in a private or incognito window. This skips your browser’s stored files and cookies, and because you are logged out, it shows what visitors see.

If the change appears there, the problem is only your browser cache. If it doesn’t appear, the old copy is coming from the site, the server, or the CDN, and you need to clear those.

1. Clear your browser cache

For a single page, a hard refresh is usually enough. It tells the browser to download the page and its files again instead of using stored copies.

• Windows and Linux (Chrome, Edge, Firefox): press Ctrl + Shift + R or Ctrl + F5.
• Mac (Chrome, Firefox): press Cmd + Shift + R.

If a hard refresh doesn’t help, clear cached images and files for the site in your browser settings. In Chrome, that is Settings → Privacy and security → Delete browsing data, then tick Cached images and files. You don’t need to delete passwords or cookies for this.

2. Clear your caching plugin

If your site uses a caching plugin, it stores a pre-built HTML copy of each page and often a combined, minified copy of your CSS and JavaScript. Both need clearing after design or content changes.

Most caching plugins add a clear option to the black admin bar at the top of the screen when you are logged in. Look for it there first:

• WP Rocket: hover the WP Rocket item in the admin bar and choose the option to clear the cache.
• LiteSpeed Cache: hover the LiteSpeed icon in the admin bar and choose Purge All.
• W3 Total Cache: hover Performance in the admin bar and choose Purge All Caches.
• WP Super Cache, WP Fastest Cache and others: look for a Delete Cache or Clear Cache link in the admin bar or on the plugin’s settings page.

If you use a page builder like Elementor and design changes still don’t show, it also keeps its own generated CSS files. In Elementor, go to Elementor → Tools and use Regenerate Files & Data, then clear your caching plugin again.

Object cache (Redis or Memcached)

Some sites also use a persistent object cache, which stores database query results. It rarely causes stale pages, but it can cause stale settings. If your caching plugin or host has a Flush Object Cache option, use it. With WP-CLI, this command does the same thing:

wp cache flush

Note that wp cache flush only clears the object cache. It does not clear page cache from a plugin, your host, or a CDN.

3. Clear your host’s server cache

Many WordPress hosts run their own page cache on the server, separate from any plugin. This catches a lot of people out, because clearing the plugin cache does nothing to it.

Check these places:

• Your WordPress admin bar. Many hosts add their own purge or flush cache button there.
• Your hosting control panel. Look for a section called Caching, Performance, or similar, with a purge or clear option.
• A host-specific plugin that was installed with your site. It usually has a clear cache button on its settings page.

If you can’t find it, ask your host’s support how to purge it.

4. Clear your CDN or Cloudflare cache

If your site runs through Cloudflare or another CDN, copies of your pages and files are stored on servers around the world. Clearing everything on your own server doesn’t touch those copies.

In Cloudflare, select your domain, then go to Caching → Configuration and click Purge Everything. If you only changed one or two files, Custom Purge lets you clear specific URLs instead.

Other CDNs work the same way: look for a purge or invalidate option in their dashboard. Some caching plugins can purge the CDN for you when you clear the plugin cache, if you connect them.

The right order to clear caches

Clear from the inside out, so each layer rebuilds from fresh content:

1. Page builder generated files, if you use one.
2. Caching plugin.
3. Object cache.
4. Server cache from your host.
5. CDN or Cloudflare.
6. Your browser, or test in a private window.

If you clear the CDN first and the plugin second, the CDN can grab the old copy again before the plugin is cleared.

Still not showing after clearing everything?

If a private window still shows the old version after every layer is cleared, the problem may not be cache at all. A few things to check:

• Make sure you edited the right page, and that you clicked Update and not just Save draft. If saving itself fails, see our guide to the Updating failed error.
• If you edited a theme file, make sure you edited the active theme or child theme, not a copy.
• If the change looks right but the site shows warnings about insecure content after a move to HTTPS, that is a mixed content issue, not cache.
• Two caching plugins at once can conflict and serve odd results. Keep one, and follow our steps to find a plugin conflict if things still look wrong.

Keep it from happening again

A bit of setup saves a lot of confusion:

• Use one page caching layer, not three. If your host provides server caching, you may not need a caching plugin doing the same job.
• Connect your caching plugin to Cloudflare if it supports it, so one click clears both.
• Get in the habit of checking changes in a private window before deciding something is broken.

Need it fixed now?

If you’ve cleared everything and the site still won’t show your changes, or caching is breaking your layout, our $79 one-time fix will track down which layer is holding on to the old version. It’s fixed or your money back, usually within 24 hours.