How to clear Facebook's image cache

Question

I have a Facebook application that's created several wall-posts on behalf of my users. The image in the wall posts is cached by Facebook's servers. I've replaced the original image on my server and I would like to clear Facebook's image cache so all of the other wall posts update with the new image.

What Facebook has cached: http://platform.ak.fbcdn.net/www/app_full_proxy.php?app=236915563048749&v=1&size=z&cksum=aebffc27f986977797a9903c2b6e08df&src=http%3A%2F%2Fvcweb2.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fassets%2Fweb%2Fimages%2Ficon_square.png

Original cached URL, now updated with new image. http://vcweb2.s3.amazonaws.com/assets/web/images/icon_square.png

Is this possible? Thanks!

Answer 1

The way to "force" facebook to clear their cache for a specific url is to use the Debugger tool.

I tried using the debugger with the url of the image and it shows the new image and not the old one, though when trying the cached link you posted the old image still appears.

I suspect that if you try to post new posts the new icon will be used and not the old cached version, but that link you posted probably won't be changed.

Answer 2

In my experience, facebook doesn't dynamically update older saved images, although the data for a fan page for example, will show the current stats. I do a lot of promotion and seen older versions of messages and posts sent out, while newer page images exist. The fan page information is the same for the one now and six months ago, however.