SharePoint 2010: Users Can't See Changes to Published & Approved Master Page

Question

I checked out the master page in SharePoint Designer 2010. Then I added inline CSS in the portion of the document. I checked it back in and published it. Then I went to the Master Page library in the browser and approved the master page. Even after approving the master page, it appears that only site administrators can see the changes.

I also tried checking out the file, publishing it, and approving it in the system administrator account and I am still having the same problem.

Am I missing something? Is there a workaround if I need to update the CSS?

As a sidenote, I have also tried publishing the changes in a custom CSS stylesheet, with the same results.

If it helps, I am using SharePoint Server 2010 on Windows 2008 Enterprise.

(Full-sized screenshot at https://i.sstatic.net/3fp8z.png)

Answer 1

If you are experiencing an issue where you see the changes, but other users do not, try the following steps:

• Confirm that the style sheet and/or master page is checked in AND that a major version is published
• If required, you may need to confirm that the published version is ALSO approved
• Confirm that the correct master page is being loaded for users
• Have the user delete their temporary files and/or make sure they are not loading a cached version of the page (from before you made the change)
• Using a test user who is NOT able to see the changes, press F12 and use the element tool to see whether or not the style is being loaded for a particular element

Somewhere along these steps, you should see the issue fixed or at least an idea of where things are breaking down for the user.

Answer 2

To everyone who responded: Thanks for your response!

Upon my request, one of the users sent me the source code. My styles were being loaded, so my changes to the master page (and probably my earlier changes to the custom stylesheet) were there.

It appears that the problem is in how I was targeting in CSS. For some background, I was attempting to add some CSS styles to the top navigation. The top navigation had this ID: #zz16_TopNavigationMenuV4. I was trying to add CSS by targeting that ID. The whole menu also has a CSS class of "s4-tn." When I targeted this class instead of the ID, then users (people who aren't admins) were able to see my changes.

If your global navigation only has an ID and not a class, open your master page in SharePoint Designer. Look for the code that begins with SharePoint:ASPMenu and add CssClass="insert-css-class-name" (Or so I assume this is how you do it - I do not actually know ASP)

So in summary: If you want to add CSS classes to your the global navigation, you need to target the class of the menu INSTEAD OF the ID.