Is your Mac running a bit slow lately? Are you seeing the dreaded spinning wheel of death more often than you’d like? If so, it might be time to give your Mac a refresh.
This blog post will show you how to refresh your mac quickly. We will cover the basics of refreshing your computer, as well as some more advanced tips.
So if you’re ready to give your Mac a fresh start, keep reading!
But what does refreshing really mean?
The term “refresh” refers to reloading the page you are viewing. Web browsers like Safari or Chrome may require this action and other apps that display content on remote servers. This means that if you are using a Mac, you will have apps such as the App Store, Music, Podcasts, or television.
The main reason for refreshing is if the content is frozen or when switching between pages doesn’t work.
How To Refresh Your Mac In Simple Steps
If you’re a Mac user from a Windows platform, you may have become habituated to hitting the F5 function key. Most Windows web browsers allow you to refresh or reload the page by pressing the F5 key. Windows users might wonder what the Mac equivalent of the refresh button is when switching to Mac. On the Mac, pressing F5 usually does nothing or adjusts the keyboard lighting.
This article describes the F5 key equivalent for Mac and how to refresh all major browsers, such as Safari, Chrome, Firefox, and Microsoft Edge.
What is a Regular Browser Refresh?
Reloading the website is all that is needed, and no cookies or temporary internet files are deleted in this refresh. There’s no more to it than that. Most Mac browsers, including Safari, Chrome, Firefox, Opera, Epic, Brave, and others, give you this option with a click on the reload button or Command + R.
We’ll dive into specific web browsers next to discuss each individually and also some specific tricks for each to reload without cache if that’s necessary.
Hard Browser Refresh: What is it?
By refreshing your browser hard, you load the most up-to-date version of a particular page. However, your browser’s refresh mechanism varies from app to app. The following are the most popular applications that need to be refreshed.
How To Refresh Safari Browser On Mac?
Unless you change your default browser, you’ll probably be using Safari by default. On a Mac, to reload or refresh a page in Safari, use these keyboard shortcuts:
You can refresh Safari in the following ways:
- On the address bar, click the curved arrow.
- For Mac’s Command + R, Safari will reload a web page, similar to pressing F5 on a Windows PC.
- To perform a hard refresh in Safari, use Command-Option-R.
Using Command+Option+R or Shift+Refresh will refresh a webpage without loading cache in Safari.
How To Refresh Google Chrome Browser On Mac?
The same keyboard shortcuts and buttons are available in Chrome as in Safari.
- On the left side of the address bar, click the curved arrow.
- Mac users can reload a webpage by pressing the Command + R key combination. When pressed together, Command+Shift+R in Chrome performs a hard refresh.
How To Refresh Firefox Browser On Mac?
Alternatively, you can use a keyboard shortcut or click a button.
- Firefox also has a curved arrow to the left of the address bar, like Chrome.
- You can use Command+R as a shortcut. Using the shortcut Command+Shift+R, you can force Firefox to reload the page.
How To Refresh Microsoft Edge Browser On Mac?
- To the left of the address bar, Microsoft Edge also has a curved arrow. It can be refreshed by clicking on it.
You can force a hard refresh by hitting the keys Command+R.
How To Refresh Opera Browser On Mac?
When refreshing a webpage with Opera, you will also be excited to learn that Opera also uses the following keyboard shortcut:
- A curved arrow is also present to the left of the address bar in Opera. To refresh quickly, click the arrow.
- You may hard refresh the opera browser by holding down Command + Option + R at the same time.
Is There a Way to Empty the Cache on Mac?
You can clear the cache on your Mac by following the steps below:
- While your Mac window is open, press shift+command+G.
- In the search box, enter ~/Library/Caches.
- Once you have clicked “Go,” you will be taken to the folder containing all cached files on your Mac.
- Selected all folders can be selected by pressing Command+A.
- To delete, click command-delete.
Conclusion
Refreshing your Mac can be done in several ways, depending on the task you’re performing. To do this, follow the instructions in this article. Further, let us know in the comments below if you know of any other helpful Mac users’ tips, keyboard shortcuts, or buttons, especially those switching from Windows!
