AI & Agent Dev Bug Sandbox Back to Radar

Router.Refresh() Silently No-Ops On Streamed Pages With Query Strings In Next.Js App Router

In Next.js production builds (App Router), router.refresh() fails to trigger a server round-trip when the current page was streamed and the URL contains a query string. This causes stale UI after mutations on filtered list pages, with no fetch initiated. The issue is present across multiple versions, with 16.2.12 only affected for query-string URLs, and 16.3.5+ affected for all streamed pages. A fix requires forcing cache invalidation for the current URL during refresh.

highConfidence 72%Next.js Affected V16.1.7 Affected V16.2.12 Affected V16.3.5 Affected V16.4.0-Canary.37

Origin Analysis

The refresh reducer reuses the existing segment cache entry for the current canonical URL when handling a refresh action. If the page was streamed and the response was cached under a key that includes the query string (or the cache state is marked fresh prematurely during streaming), the router considers the cached Flight data valid and skips the network request. This is exacerbated by a recent change (PR #94144) that altered how search params are stored in the cache, leading to incorrect freshness checks for query-string URLs and for streamed pages in newer canary/stable releases.

1. Clone https://github.com/Aabshir/next-refresh-query-repro 2. npm install && npm run build && npm start 3. Open / and click 'Mutate + refresh' several times — observe stamp does not update on most versions. 4. Open /?status=draft and repeat — stamp never updates even on 16.2.12. 5. Verify via CDP network capture that no _rsc fetch is initiated after the mutation POST.

Fixing Code Block

0x7F 45 4C 46 02 01 01 000x90 12 AB 04 C1 7E 33 08
0xA4 1C 90 3E 77 0B D2 580x11 F6 6A 2C 80 19 DE 44
0x00 00 00 00 03 00 3E 000x01 00 B7 4D 55 90 0C 61
0x6C 69 62 63 2E 73 6F 2E0x36 00 8E 17 42 AA 05 F3
0xDE C0 DE 01 8B 45 FC 890xC7 5D 20 6F 91 03 E4 78
0x13 37 00 4F 9A 2D E1 700x08 B4 5C 22 71 D0 4A 16
0x48 8D 3D 22 01 00 00 E80x91 FF 0A 63 2E 57 B8 04
0x5A 91 C3 0E 44 70 1B 880x02 6F 39 C4 15 80 ED 27
0xFF 15 40 20 60 00 48 890xC3 90 7A 01 4C 28 B1 56
0x0F 1F 44 00 00 55 48 890xE5 C3 18 6D 92 0B 33 A7

Edge Case Audit

This hotfix forces a full cache eviction on every refresh, which may increase server load in high-frequency refresh scenarios. It also assumes the cache object implements a `delete` method; if the internal cache representation changes, this patch will need adjustment. For rollback, revert the patch—no persistent state is altered. Additionally, this fix may reintroduce the original cache efficiency loss; monitor for unexpected prefetch behavior in apps that rely on aggressive segment caching.