Report this

What is the reason for this report?

Website not responding - possible cache issues?

Posted on January 15, 2020

Hello,

My daughter has a very simple Python program that is linked to a few very simple HTML pages. Up until two days ago, everything was working fine.

Then, two days ago, she made basic textual changes to a couple of HTML pages - but they did not reflect in the actual webpage. We tried different browsers, cleared browser cache - still, nothing.

Then, next day - her changes showed up. So we chalked it up to cache issues. Perhaps the cache was cleared on the server side and all was well.

So she made a few more changes. And again, they did not reflect right away. So we though, OK, they will show up the next day.

Now, we cannot access the website at all! When we type in the URL, the browser just waits and waits and waits - and nothing.

I can ping the server and it returns data, so the physical server is obviously up.

Would appreciate any thoughts on what might be causing this issue or how we can check if this is a caching issue. We have not made ANY other changes - to the Droplet OR to the Python app.

Oh, there was a swap file yesterday that we deleted. But that’s about it.

Thanks! Sunil



This textbox defaults to using Markdown to format your answer.

You can type !ref in this text area to quickly search our full set of tutorials, documentation & marketplace offerings and insert the link!

These answers are provided by our Community. If you find them useful, show some love by clicking the heart. If you run into issues leave a comment, or add your own answer to help others.

Hello, @slala

Are you using any server level caching on your droplet and also if you’re using any CDN service like CloudFlare as well?

Keep in mind that if you make simple HTML file changes they should usually reflect right away, but as you’ve mentioned the browser’s cache can prevent you from viewing the changes, so it’s generally a good idea to clear the browser’s cache, access the site in incognito windows and use different browser or test the site using your smart devices and mobile data as well.

If you can view your changes on the server as well, then it’s a matter of time to see the changes in the browser, but if you can share some additional information about the server configuration (web server in use and etc) this will help me to assist you further.

Regards, Alex

The developer cloud

Scale up as you grow — whether you're running one virtual machine or ten thousand.

Get started for free

Sign up and get $200 in credit for your first 60 days with DigitalOcean.*

*This promotional offer applies to new accounts only.