Refetches

Refetches are the act of fetching data again from a source to obtain current information. In client-side software, refetches refresh data after changes, recover from stale content, or synchronize state with a remote server. They can be triggered by user requests (a refresh button), by polling at regular intervals, or by cache invalidation or network status changes.

Typically a data-fetching library exposes a refetch mechanism—a function or trigger that reissues the original query or request. A refetch usually uses the same parameters as the initial fetch, ensuring consistency, though some libraries support adjusted parameters or conditional refetches. Some libraries allow refetching multiple queries in a single operation or refetching dependent data in a batch.

Design considerations include data freshness versus latency and resource usage. Frequent refetches can increase server load and mobile data usage; infrequent refetches risk serving stale data. To manage this, developers use strategies such as selective polling, background refresh, debouncing user actions, or rules tied to visibility changes (revalidating when the app comes into the foreground).

In practice, refetching is common in web and mobile apps that consume remote APIs. Common implementations include client libraries for GraphQL and REST that expose a manual refetch function or a revalidation mechanism, and caching layers that invalidate entries to trigger a fresh fetch.