Cannot remove 301 redirect

Question

I stupidly did a 301 redirect on websiteA.com to websiteB.com. After removing it from the .htaccess file the redirect is still in operation. I tried from outside the local network and it is still redirecting. I have cleared my cache and tried a different browser.

Does anybody have any suggestions?

UPDATE:

If I add a 302 redirect to this .htaccess file the site honours it. When I remove it, the old 301 redirect still happens.

.htaccess file for websiteA.com:

# -- concrete5 urls start --

Options -Indexes

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php/$1 [L]
</IfModule>
# -- concrete5 urls end --

#RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^.*$
#RewriteRule ^/?$ "http\:\/\/www\.websiteB\.co\.uk\/" [R=301,L]

Answer 1

Try to visit the website with Developers Console open (F12)

Make sure you check "Disable cache" under "Network" tab

This will bypass 301 redirect cache on browser-side.

Answer 2

The browser caches the 301 Moved Permanently, until told otherwise. It is default behavior: http://www.w3.org/Protocols/rfc2616/rfc2616-sec10.html#sec10.3.2.

To fix it in IE9:

1. Open IE9 and press Ctrl+Shift+P for private browsing
2. Navigate to the problem URL
3. Then go back to normal browsing and all should be fine again