Refrescan

Refrescan is the act of performing a scan again to detect changes since the previous scan. The term is used in computing and digital management to update lists, inventories, or system states after modifications have occurred.

In hardware and operating systems, a refrescan re-enumerates connected devices and re-reads the device tree to reflect additions, removals, or state changes. This is common after plugging in peripherals, mounting new storage, or altering hardware configurations, ensuring the system’s view of available devices is current.

In networking, a refresh scan updates the list of available wireless networks, devices, or peers and refreshes measurements such as signal strength and channel usage. This helps keep connection decisions and network maps up to date.

In media libraries and indexing systems, a refresh scan re-indexes files on disk, refreshes metadata, and removes entries for deleted items. It can also trigger metadata fetches from online sources to maintain an accurate catalog.

In security and antivirus contexts, a refrescan may re-scan the filesystem or a subset of data after updates or policy changes, ensuring detections reflect the latest definitions and configurations.

Methods and implications vary by system. Refrescans are typically initiated via a user interface control labeled Refresh or Rescan, or through command-line options such as --refresh or --rescan. Some systems perform incremental rescans that process only changed items, while others perform a full re-scan, which can be more thorough but resource-intensive.

See also: rescan, refresh, indexing, inventory.