I know this is an ancient thread, but it's also an unfixed issue. For those of us who work on rich email messages for corporate clients, this issue is a real PitA.

If I update an image and upload it, DW's Design View never ever refreshes -- not for love or money. Live View does refresh, but once I switch back  (so I can work on the HTML rather than simply admire my beautiful handiwork) Design View stubbornly refuses to refresh the image.

F5 won't do it. View > Refresh Design View won't do it. Screaming at my computer won't do it. And I've tried all three methods many times.

Is this an issue that's fixed in DW 5.5?

I haven't tried clearing the site cache, but restarting DW refreshes it. Also not a great solution!

Dreamweaver cache's the images downloaded on your HTML page outwith the physical site cache. When Live View is used, it draws a live connection from the image hosted on the web and thats why you see the recent image. In Design View, it simply views the cached image that it downloaded the first time - so if you have changed it numerous times on the web, you will not see the change.

You need to clear the image cache. in CS5.5 and on Mac, this can be found in Library > Application Support > Adobe > Dreamweaver CS5.5 > en_US > Configuration > Temp.

I agree, it should. I am a little confused though as to what you are expecting to happen. The absolute URL means files are hosted on the web. So this piece from your earlier post:

If I forget to upload the images to the server first, then I lose any preview, it's all broken images.

is perfectly correct. If you don't upload the images, how do you expect them to show?

I am then confused by this one from your latest post:

I'm on PC, CS6. Have gone to \Users\<user>\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Dreamweaver CS6\en_US\Configuration\Temp and emptied out the folder. Still no preview

How do you mean "no preview"? You should always have a preview, it might just not be the most recent image you uploaded. No preview to me sounds like a bad link. When you close and re-open DW, it wipes out the Temp folder and then starts a new one from scratch the next time you open it up - effectively the same as removing the files manually. Do you have the page online to see if we can replicate the issue?

In my own experience, it does take a little while (3 seconds or so) for the images to appear in Design View. I can speed it up by using Live View.

Hi Rik. Yeah, it sounds a little confusing. I will try to be more clear. When I'm working on a file with absolute links, I do most of the work with local image links, then switch it to the absolute link towards the end of the work. If I save the file before I have uploaded the images to the server (it automatically refreshes on save), I see a broken image placeholder, as one would expect. Then, after uploading the images and refreshing the design view, I do not get any change. When the images are uploaded before the file is saved, the design preview will happen only once. Any further image changes do not refresh.

There is only one shot at a preview. Emptying the cache/temp files does not work to fix the preview refresh. I have to close/reopen Dreamweaver to get a second preview. Not super convenient when I have a dozen files open.

It's not so important which page is used for a test. This has happened on every single file I have edited that uses full, absolute links for images (ex. http://www.daserver.com/images/refreshme.jpg).

Switching back and forth between live view and design view doesn't refresh the design preview either.

Ugh. And, as I discovered today. No internet connection when previewing in design view means broken images and no refresh. Must restart again!

Thanks David. This is very helpful. Now it makes sense. I will definitely submit a feature request. The only time I need that feature is when I'm working on email campaigns for clients, which I seem to be doing a lot of lately. I see I'm not the only one either! Thank you.