Owl Is Loading Slowly/Unresponsive

If you find that Owl is running slowly or strangely on your device, there's a few different things you can check and do to resolve this. As always, if these suggestions don't help your situation, please reach out to our support team so we can assist you further.

First, it's always a good idea to check your network connection and see if your internet is running at the speed you'd expect. Try and load other websites and see if they load, or you can even do a network speed test (google this to find a variety of websites you can do this at).

If your internet is going at an acceptable speed, there's still a couple of other things you can try to get Owl to work correctly. Firstly, you can perform a hard refresh of Owl - what this does is clear your browser's cache specifically for the page of Owl you are visiting. Caching in browsers can cause updates to Owl to not appear straight away, which can potentially cause compatibility issues - as such, a hard refresh can be a good way to remedy this.

Hard Refresh

To perform a hard refresh, follow these instructions depending on your desktop browser:

Chrome:
Windows:
  1. Hold down Ctrl and click the Reload button.
  2. Alternatively, Hold down Ctrl and press F5.
Mac:
  1. Hold ⇧ Shift and click the Reload button.
  2. Alternatively, hold down ⌘ Cmd and ⇧ Shift key and then press R.
Safari:
Mac:
1. Press Option+⌘+E. Then, to refresh, click the refresh button on the address bar or press ⌘+R.

Mozilla Firefox:
Windows:
  1. Hold the Ctrl key and press the F5 key.
  2. Alternatively, hold down Ctrl and ⇧ Shift and then press R.
Mac:
  1. Hold down the ⇧ Shift and click the Reload button.
  2. Alternatively, hold down ⌘ Cmd and ⇧ Shift and then press R.

Clearing Cookies and Cache

If a hard refresh doesn't resolve your issues, you can try to clear your web browser's cookies and cache. Clearing your web browser's cache and cookies periodically can help prevent or resolve performance problems on Owl, but please keep in mind that this may remove data such as the following:
  • Saved passwords
  • Address bar predictions
  • Shopping cart contents, etc.
Android:
You should be able to clear your cache and data for most browsers from your application management settings menu:
  1. Go to Settings and choose Apps or Application Manager.
  2. Swipe to the All tab.
  3. In the list of installed apps, find and tap your web browser. Tap Clear Data and then Clear Cache.
  4. Exit/quit all browser windows and re-open the browser.
iOS:
Safari for iOS:
  1. Open your Settings app.
  2. Tap Safari.
  3. Tap Clear History and Website Data and confirm.
  4. Exit/quit all browser windows and re-open the browser.
Desktop:
Safari:
  1. From the Safari menu, select Clear History... or Clear History and Website Data....
  2. Select the desired time range, and then click Clear History.
Chrome:
  1. In the browser bar, enter chrome://settings/clearBrowserData
  2. At the top of the "Clear browsing data" window, click Advanced.
  3. Select the following:
    • Browsing history
    • Download history
    • Cookies and other site data
    • Cached images and files
    From the "Time range" drop-down menu, you can choose the period of time for which you want to clear cached information. To clear your entire cache, select All time.
  4. Click Clear Data.
  5. Exit/quit all browser windows and re-open the browser.
Firefox:
  1. From the History menu, select Clear Recent History.If the menu bar is hidden, press Alt to make it visible.
  2. From the Time range to clear: drop-down menu, select the desired range; to clear your entire cache, select Everything.
  3. Click Clear Now.
  4. Exit/quit all browser windows and re-open the browser.

Owl on iOS - Loading Issues

If you find yourself having issues using Owl on your iOS Device (iPhone, iPad), there may be an explanation for this if you have Owl bookmarked to the home screen of your device (see here for instructions on doing that/and explanation of what that is). Bookmarking URLs in this manner can cause caching issues over a long period of time, but you can often resolve this by deleting the "app" icon from your home screen, and then recreating the icon by opening your Owl URL from Safari itself.

Contact Us

If none of these suggestions are helping resolving your slowness issue, or you are having difficulties with some of the instructions posted here, please reach out to our support team so we can help resolve this for you!