Fixed Links Still Broken? Cached 404s and Redirects May Be the Cause
A developer's repaired link kept failing for some readers even after the fix was confirmed to work. The article explains that HTTP responses, including error pages and redirects, can be stored by browsers, CDNs, proxies, and frameworks, and reused long after the underlying problem is resolved. Browsers may hold 404s when servers send long cache lifetimes, and permanent redirects such as 301s are often cached aggressively and hard to undo. CDNs and caching proxies may keep error responses for a set period through so-called negative caching, and static site generators keep missing pages until the next build. The piece recommends using private windows or curl, checking cache headers like Age and X-Cache, and purging affected URLs or rebuilding the site to resolve the issue.
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