Thumbalizr may be returning a previously generated screenshot, or it may have generated a fresh screenshot from page resources that are themselves cached or not yet updated. Check the response headers first: they distinguish an old capture from a new capture of old content.
First, find out whether the screenshot itself is old
Retrieve the response for the screenshot and inspect these headers in Thumbalizr’s current Embed API documentation:
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X-Thumbalizr-Generatedgives the screenshot generation time.X-Thumbalizr-Statusreports whether the job isQUEUED,OK, orFAILED.X-Thumbalizr-Error, when present, gives an explanation for a failure.
A recent generation time and OK indicate Thumbalizr completed a recent capture; investigate what the renderer received from your site rather than assuming the screenshot cache is responsible. QUEUED means the capture is not complete yet. For FAILED, use the error header to diagnose the failure before treating it as a stale-image problem.
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Thumbalizr’s Embed API uses the timestamp parameter to determine whether to create a new thumbnail or reuse an older one. To request a refresh, send a different timestamp value from the one used for the previous capture. The current documentation marks this option unavailable on the free tier and available on paid tiers; verify the entitlement for your own account and API type before relying on it. Thumbalizr’s 2017 explanation of the timestamp parameter describes its role in deciding whether to generate a new screenshot or serve an older one.
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Do not copy a historical example timestamp from the documentation as if it were a current value. Generate a new value for each refresh request, and make sure your request is built correctly: Thumbalizr warns that URL encoding matters. If your Embed API request is signed, compute the token from the same encoded query string that you actually send. Keep the API secret private.
If the capture is new, check the page and its assets
A screenshot renderer can only capture what it receives. Even when Thumbalizr creates a new image, the HTML, CSS, JavaScript, or image files it loads may come from an origin server, CDN, proxy, or other HTTP cache. HTTP caches reuse stored responses according to freshness and validation rules; a browser’s refresh button does not prove that a remote renderer received the same response as your browser. See the HTTP caching reference for how freshness and validation work.
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- Open the target page in a normal browser and confirm the update is live there.
- Identify the specific outdated part of the screenshot: page text, styles, script-driven content, or an image.
- Check the response and cache behavior for the corresponding HTML or asset URL at your origin and CDN. Confirm the deployed file and the response served to remote clients have the expected version.
- After addressing any stale response, request another Thumbalizr capture and check its generation and status headers again.
Compare the capture settings with the page you expect
A recent screenshot can still look outdated or incomplete if it captures a different portion of the page, viewport, location, or render state. Thumbalizr documents controls for viewport width and height (bwidth and bheight), screen or full-page size (size), delay (delay), and capture country (country). Compare requests using the same settings before concluding that the content failed to update.
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Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesFind Drivers →- Delay: the documented range is 1–30 seconds; five seconds is shown as the default for some tiers. If your page fills in after initial load, test a longer delay. The right value depends on how the page renders.
- Viewport and page size: match the browser width and height and choose screen versus full-page capture consistently. Responsive layouts and content loaded farther down the page can differ between these settings.
- Country: a location-dependent page may display different content for different capture regions.
Troubleshoot in this order
- Read the headers. Record
X-Thumbalizr-Generated,X-Thumbalizr-Status, and anyX-Thumbalizr-Error. - Request a new capture. Change
timestampif your API and plan support it. - Check request construction. Encode the target URL and other query parameters correctly; for signed requests, sign the same encoded query that is sent.
- Check the live page and resources. Verify the HTML and the CSS, scripts, or images that appear stale, including their origin and CDN cache behavior.
- Match render settings. Compare delay, viewport, page size, and country with the capture you expect.
- Contact support if the mismatch remains. Provide the target URL, API type and plan, request with secrets removed, response headers, the time you expected the update, and the returned image. Never send or publish your API key or Embed API secret.
Or skip the browser setup
For a new screenshot workflow, ScreenshotNeo is a website screenshot API and MCP server. Its one-request API can return a screenshot or PDF, and its response headers identify page verdict and billing status. See the ScreenshotNeo API documentation.
curl -G "https://api.screenshotneo.com/v1/shot" -d access_key=YOUR_API_KEY --data-urlencode url=https://stripe.com -o shot.webpScreenshotNeo accepts cookie and consent banners and removes more than 60 known consent platforms, newsletter popups, and chat widgets before capture; these steps can be turned off. Bot checks and CAPTCHAs, blank pages, timeouts, failed loads, and cache hits are not billed. Its MCP server includes take_screenshot, get_page_info, and capture_pdf for AI agents and other MCP clients. The free plan includes 1,000 screenshots per month with no card; paid plans start at $5 for 3,000 screenshots.
Sign up for ScreenshotNeo’s free plan to get 1,000 screenshots a month with no card.
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