Facebook Open Graph not clearing cache

Question

I'm having troubles with my meta tags with Open Graph. It seems as though Facebook is caching old values of my meta tags. Old values for Attributes og:title and og:url are still used, even though I have changed them already.

I ran Lint on a page in my site, and this appeared:

Notice that there are two values for og:title and og:url, and the last one prevailed. However, The last two entries are the OLD entries that I used for this site. I am now currently using these meta tags (you can verify if you view the source of the HTML):

<meta property="og:title" content="Smart og rummelig pusletaske fra Petit Amour med god plads til alt &#8211; værdi 1.099 kr &#8211; køb nu kun 599 kr   "/>
<meta property="og:description" content="Pinq.dk - Det gode liv for det halve"/>
<meta property="og:type" content="product"/>
<meta property="og:url" content="http://pinq.dk/tilbud/landsdaekkende/lissy/"/>
<meta property="og:image" content="http://pinq.dk/wp-content/themes/pinq/images/logo-top.png"/>
<meta property="og:site_name" content="Pinq" />
<meta property="fb:app_id" content="161840830532004" />

Why is Facebook caching og:title and og:url? Is anyone experiencing the same issue?

Answer 1

Ooook, finally it helped (I use IP.Board). What I had to do was:

1. Change url of og:image on my website (General configuration).
2. Try this method with ?fbrefresh=1154464gd56

Thanks to author for this thread!

EDIT: What is more you need to remember about image requirements. For now (january 2013) it's: - at least 200 px in both directions - maximum ratio 3:1

Answer 2

Had a similar experience. Website link was showing a 404 in the preview that facebook generated. Turns out the og:url metadata was wrong. We had already fixed it a few days back but were still seeing a 404 on the preview. We used the tool at https://developers.facebook.com/tools/debug/ and that forced the refresh (didn't have to append any parameters by the way) In our case, Facebook didn't refresh the cache after 24 hours but the tool helped force it.

Answer 3

It is a cache, ofc it refreshes, that's what cache is ment to do once in a while. So waiting will eventually work but sometimes you need to do that faster. Changing the filename works.

Answer 4

I'm sorry folks but the correct answer is:

There is no fool proof way to update the open graph og:image url with immediate result. It is cached until fb updates (reportedly every 24 hours)

Here are things that have been reported to work by others but I have had ZERO success with any of them.

• Choosing "Fetch new scrape information"
• Changing the actual image filename and/or deleting the original
• Adding a query string to the image url by appending a PHP TIMESTAMP or ?anything
• Adding the "...yoursite.com/?fbrefresh=anything" query string to the debugger fetch url
• Choosing the graph API link at the bottom of the og dev page
• Choosing to see exactly what the scraper sees - does not appear to request real time un-cached scrape data, it still shows the cached image url even if the file no longer exists

Inspecting your code is always a spot on way to confirm it is not an issue with browser cache or some caching service. If the meta information is up to date in your code and you've tried all of the above (unless another suggestion comes to fruition), the correct answer is you can do nothing but wait.

Answer 5

The OG thumbnail does not seem to refresh even if passing the fbrefresh variable. To update this without waiting for automated clearing you'll need to change the filename of the thumbnail associated meta tag value and refresh.

Answer 6

I had the same issues using og:image, several attempts to rename the file or clear FB cache did not work either via the facebook debugger or testing via an actual account.

The new facebook guidelines state the image size should be 1200 x 630 or having that aspect ratio, this seems to be wrong, the only thing that worked for me was using an image with square dimensions.

Edit* Afew hours I went back to use 1200 x 630 and it magically worked, it was magical.

I also renamed the files to f*^*kfacebook.jpg, not sure it helped but it felt good.