Why your link preview isn't updating

You’ve updated your page’s image or title, but when you share the link, the old preview keeps appearing. Almost always, the cause is caching: platforms save a copy of your preview the first time a link is shared, and keep showing that copy rather than checking your page again.

The good news is that it’s fixable. Work through these steps in order.

1. Check that your page really serves the new tags

Before blaming the platforms, make sure the change is actually live. Your own site, your hosting or a CDN may still be serving the old version.

Paste the address into the OG checker and press Check again, which skips its own cache and fetches the page fresh. Check that:

• og:image points to the new image address;
• the image loads, and is a supported format and size;
• the title and description are the new ones.

If the checker still shows the old values, the problem is on your side. Clear your site’s or CDN’s cache, or check that the change was deployed. Platforms can’t show what your page isn’t serving yet.

2. Ask each platform to fetch it again

Once the page is right, tell the platforms to refresh their copy.

Facebook (and Messenger)

Open the Facebook Sharing Debugger, paste your address and press Scrape Again. It shows what Facebook sees, lists any problems, and updates the cached preview straight away. You may need to press it twice.

LinkedIn

Open the LinkedIn Post Inspector, paste your address and press Inspect. Inspecting a link fetches it again and refreshes LinkedIn’s copy.

X (Twitter)

X no longer offers a public tool for refreshing cards. Its cache expires on its own, which can take several days. If you can’t wait, change the address you share (step 3).

Telegram

Send the link to @WebpageBot in Telegram. It’s Telegram’s official bot for refreshing link previews.

Slack, Discord, WhatsApp and iMessage

These have no refresh tool you can use. Slack and Discord refresh their copies over time. WhatsApp and iMessage previews are often saved on each person’s device, so a link already sent in a chat keeps its old preview. For anything you’re about to share again, change the address (step 3).

3. Change the address

This works everywhere, including platforms with no refresh tool. Platforms cache by address, so a new address means a fresh preview.

Change the image’s address. Upload the new image under a new filename, or add a version to the end, and update og:image:

<!-- before -->
<meta property="og:image" content="https://example.com/og/launch.png" />
<!-- after -->
<meta property="og:image" content="https://example.com/og/launch.png?v=2" />

Platforms often cache the image separately from the page. So even after refreshing the page, an old image can stick until its address changes. Versioning the image address prevents this.

Or share a slightly different page address. Adding a harmless query string, such as https://example.com/launch?v=2, makes platforms treat it as a new link. It’s a quick fix for one important share, but it creates a second address for the same page, so prefer changing the image address where you can.

4. If the image still won’t show

If a refresh shows no image at all (rather than the old one), something is stopping platforms from loading it. Common causes:

• A relative address. og:image must start with https://.
• The image is too big or the wrong format. Stay under 5 MB (ideally well under 1 MB), and use PNG or JPG. The size guide has each platform’s limits.
• Bot protection. Firewalls and “bot fight” settings can block the crawlers platforms use to fetch previews. Allow known link-preview crawlers, such as Facebook’s, LinkedIn’s and X’s.
• robots.txt blocks the image or page. Some platforms respect it when fetching previews.
• The image needs a login, or redirects to a login page.
• The server is too slow. Platforms give up if the page or image takes too long to load.
• The tags are added by JavaScript. Platforms read the HTML your server sends and don’t run scripts. See Open Graph meta tags explained.

The OG checker catches most of these: it flags relative addresses, oversized or unsupported images, broken links and images it can’t load.

A quick checklist

1. Run the page through the OG checker with Check again, and confirm it shows the new image.
2. Refresh Facebook with the Sharing Debugger and LinkedIn with the Post Inspector.
3. If an old image still appears anywhere, add ?v=2 to the image address.
4. Next time, give every new image a new filename from the start, and caching will never catch you out.

Need a fresh image? Make one in the editor, or create images for your whole site with batch images.