How to make Facebook refresh an old link preview

To make Facebook show your new title, description or image, run a Facebook Sharing Debugger refresh: open the Sharing Debugger, paste your link, click Debug, then click Scrape Again. Facebook reads the page fresh and replaces its stored copy. If the old image still appears afterwards, the usual reason is that the new image has the same file address as the old one, or that your own site cache is still serving the old tags. Both are easy to fix.

Why Facebook shows an old preview

The first time a link is shared, Facebook's crawler reads the page and saves what it finds: title, description, image and address. Later shares use that saved copy, so a change on your site doesn't appear on Facebook straight away. Facebook refreshes stored previews on its own schedule, but it doesn't promise a fixed time, so the practical answer is to ask for a refresh yourself.

Two more details from Facebook's documentation matter here:

• Images are cached by address. Facebook says images "won't be updated unless the URL changes". Replacing a file but keeping its name can leave the old picture in place.
• Old posts don't always update. Facebook notes that updating the image for a URL "will not automatically update the preview for old shares".

How to do a Facebook Sharing Debugger refresh

1. Fix the page first. Make sure the page now sends the right tags. Enter its address in our Open Graph Preview to see the Facebook card and every og: tag your server actually sends. If the preview there is still wrong, Facebook will read the same wrong tags.
2. Clear your own caches. Purge your WordPress caching plugin, your host's cache, and Cloudflare if it caches your HTML (in Cloudflare, use a custom purge for that one address). Otherwise Facebook may be served the old page.
3. Open the debugger. Go to the Facebook Sharing Debugger and log in with any Facebook account.
4. Paste the link and click Debug. Use the exact address people share, including https:// and www if your site uses it.
5. Look at the last scrape time. The section "When and how we last scraped the URL" shows when Facebook last read the page.
6. Click Scrape Again. Facebook reads the page right now. The Link Preview box updates with what it found.
7. Read the warnings. Fix anything under "Warnings That Should Be Fixed", such as a missing or inaccessible og:image, then click Scrape Again once more.
8. Check the raw tags if needed. The debugger can show the exact tags its crawler received. If they don't match your page, something (a plugin, a cache, a firewall) is serving Facebook a different version.
9. Share again. For posts that already show the old card, make a new post with the link.

For a new page, running it through the debugger once before you share it is also useful. Facebook says its crawler has to see an image at least once before it can show it, so this pre-loads the image and the first share gets the picture.

When Scrape Again doesn't fix it

The image keeps its old address

Upload the new image under a new file name (for example cover-v2.jpg), update og:image, then Scrape Again. This is the fix in most stubborn cases.

Your site still serves old tags

Check the page in our Meta Tag Checker or Open Graph Preview. If the old tags appear there, the problem is a cache or a plugin on your side, not Facebook.

The link redirects

If the shared address redirects (for example from http:// to https://, or through a short link), Facebook follows the redirect and reads the final page. Check the chain with our Redirect Checker and make sure the final page has the right tags. Sharing the final address directly is cleaner.

og:url points somewhere else

Facebook treats og:url as the page's real address and uses the information stored for that address. If og:url points to your homepage or an old address, you'll keep seeing that page's card. Set og:url to the page's own address.

The image can't be downloaded

The debugger reports images it couldn't fetch. Common causes: a relative path, an image behind a login, a firewall that blocks Facebook's crawler (facebookexternalhit), or a file over Facebook's 8 MB limit. Use a full https:// address to a 1200 × 630 px JPG or PNG.

It still shows old data after a few tries

Facebook sometimes needs a few minutes. Wait, then click Scrape Again once more.

Does adding ?v=2 help?

Adding a harmless query such as ?v=2 makes many apps treat the link as brand new. On Facebook it can still lead back to the old card, because Facebook follows og:url to the original address. Use it as a last resort, and remember that likes and share counts are tied to one address. The Sharing Debugger is the proper fix.

Refreshing other apps

• LinkedIn: use the LinkedIn Post Inspector, which reads the page again when you inspect a link. See why LinkedIn shows no preview.
• WhatsApp and X: there is no public refresh button. They read the page again after a while. Messages and posts already sent keep their card.

Quick checklist

• Page shows the right card in the Open Graph Preview
• Site and Cloudflare caches purged
• New image uploaded under a new file name
• og:url is the page's own address
• Debug, then Scrape Again, then fix warnings and repeat
• Share the link again for a fresh post

If Facebook still shows the wrong picture after all this, read why Facebook shows the wrong image for the full list of causes.