# LiveReload isn't reloading > You save a file and the Hugo dev server does nothing – or reloads with the old content. Work out whether Hugo saw the change or the browser ignored it. Section: Fixing common Hugo problems Source: https://hugokit.com/docs/hugo-livereload-not-reloading/ Updated: 2026-07-21 --- You save a file. The browser sits there. Or it refreshes and shows exactly what it showed before. Before you change anything, work out **which half is broken**: did Hugo see the file change, or did the browser fail to act on it? The server log answers that. Save the file and watch the terminal: ``` Change detected, rebuilding site (#1). Total in 42 ms ``` - **You see that line** → Hugo saw it. The problem is in the browser. - **You see nothing** → Hugo never noticed the file. The problem is the watcher. Those are two completely different bugs, and guessing wrong costs you an hour. ## Hugo rebuilt, but the browser didn't **Is the LiveReload script actually in the page?** View source and look in the ``: ```html ``` Hugo injects it into every HTML page it serves. If it isn't there: - **`disableLiveReload` is on.** Check your config for `disableLiveReload = true`, and check that the server isn't running with `--disableLiveReload`. - **You're not looking at the dev server.** Opening a file from `public/` (a `file://` URL), or serving `public/` through some other web server, gives you a page with no LiveReload connection. The address has to be `localhost:1313`. **The script is there but nothing happens?** LiveReload runs over a WebSocket to the same port. A content blocker, a corporate proxy or an aggressive browser extension can kill it – try a private window with extensions disabled. And if your own site registers a service worker, it can serve you a cached page forever; unregister it under DevTools → Application → Service Workers. ## The page reloads but the content is stale That's Fast Render Mode. Hugo only re-renders what it thinks it needs to, and some changes – config, data files, some template changes – fall outside its guess. ```bash hugo server --disableFastRender ``` Slower, always right. Use it while you're debugging, not permanently. Note that changing the config file restarts the whole server rather than triggering a rebuild – that's expected, and it takes a moment longer. ## Hugo never saw the change If nothing appears in the log when you save, the file watcher never fired: - **Your editor writes an atomic replace.** Some editors save to a temp file and rename it over the original. Hugo usually copes, but on a network share it may not see anything. - **The project is on a network volume, a synced folder or a mounted share.** File-change events don't always cross that boundary. Move the project to a local folder and try again. - **You edited a file Hugo doesn't watch.** Hugo watches your project's directories – files outside them, or reached through a symlink, may not produce events. - **You hit the OS limit on watched files.** On a big project you'll see a warning about too many open files. Restarting the server usually clears it. ## Hard refresh, once If you've fixed the cause and the page still looks old, the browser is holding a cached copy: `⇧⌘R` on macOS, `Ctrl+F5` on Windows. Do this *after* you've found the cause, not instead of finding it. > HugoKit never turns LiveReload off, and its log tells you which half you're in: a `File changed – rebuilding` line means Hugo saw the change and the browser is the problem. No line means the watcher never fired. See [Running the server](/docs/running-the-server/). --- From [HugoKit](https://hugokit.com/) – A Mac app for Hugo: run the server, preview your pages and publish your site from one window. Free, native, no terminal – built by one person for his own sites.