Styles look wrong after update

Cached CSS can leave an older layout after an update.

When a layout breaks immediately after an update, the new HTML is usually being styled by yesterday's CSS. Clearing caches in the right order fixes it more often than any code change.

Clear caches from the inside out

1. Joomla. System, Clear Cache, then System, Clear Expired Cache.
2. Browser. A hard reload with Ctrl and F5, or Cmd, Shift and R on macOS.
3. Third party cache. Purge any page cache plugin, JCH Optimize, or similar.
4. CDN. Purge Cloudflare or your CDN last, since it may hold copies of the old files.

Confirm the browser has the new file

Open the developer tools Network tab, reload, and check the stylesheet response. A 200 with a fresh timestamp means you are seeing current CSS, and the problem is genuinely in the styles rather than the cache.

When it is not caching

• A template override in templates/yourtemplate/html may still contain the old markup and need updating.
• Custom CSS may target class names the update renamed.
• Combining or minifying scripts can fail silently after a version change; disable it briefly to test.

If the layout is still wrong, send a screenshot plus the page URL. Seeing the rendered markup tells us quickly whether an override is involved.