AEMaaCS - How to remove default Cache-Control on HTML responses? | Community
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GanthiRa1Community Advisor
Community Advisor
September 15, 2025
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AEMaaCS - How to remove default Cache-Control on HTML responses?

  • September 15, 2025
  • 3 replies
  • 778 views

Hi All,

 

I am trying to disable cache for HTML responses. I have these rules already in dispatcher config,

 

<LocationMatch "^/content/.*\.html$">
Header always unset Cache-Control
Header always unset Expires
Header always set Cache-Control "no-store, no-cache, max-age=0, must-revalidate"
Header always set Pragma "no-cache"
Header always set Surrogate-Control "no-store"
</LocationMatch>

 

However, when I check response headers I still see this:

cache-control: no-store, no-cache, max-age=0, must-revalidate,max-age=300

 

It looks like max-age=300 is being appended somewhere. I want to know from where this default Cache-Control: max-age=300 is getting added? What is the recommended way to override / remove this so my own no-cache rules are effective?

 

Thanks in advance !

Best answer by GanthiRa1

Resolved the default HTML caching issue by following this documentation,https://experienceleague.adobe.com/en/docs/experience-manager-cloud-service/content/implementing/content-delivery/caching

Dispatcher configuration sets some default caching headers for text/html content type.

  • by default, cached by the browser for five minutes, based on the cache-control header emitted by the Apache layer. The CDN also respects this value.
  • the default HTML/Text caching setting can be disabled by defining the DISABLE_DEFAULT_CACHING variable in global.vars:
Define DISABLE_DEFAULT_CACHING
 

 

 

3 replies

G
Community Advisor
GanthiRa1Community AdvisorAuthor
Community Advisor
September 15, 2025

I missed to add this as part of my question. We do not have any other CDN on top of Fastly. And no other rules added on dispatcher for caching.

G
Community Advisor
GanthiRa1Community AdvisorAuthorAccepted solution
Community Advisor
September 23, 2025

Resolved the default HTML caching issue by following this documentation,https://experienceleague.adobe.com/en/docs/experience-manager-cloud-service/content/implementing/content-delivery/caching

Dispatcher configuration sets some default caching headers for text/html content type.

  • by default, cached by the browser for five minutes, based on the cache-control header emitted by the Apache layer. The CDN also respects this value.
  • the default HTML/Text caching setting can be disabled by defining the DISABLE_DEFAULT_CACHING variable in global.vars:
Define DISABLE_DEFAULT_CACHING
 

 

 

    SantoshSai
    Community Advisor
    SantoshSaiCommunity Advisor
    Community Advisor
    September 16, 2025

    Hi @ganthira1,

    I think it's either (a) another vhost/dispatcher rule that sets max-age=300, often in default.vhost or a base file that loads after yours, or (b) publish-side code doing response.setHeader("Cache-Control", "max-age=300…"). Fastly won’t add 300 by itself.

    Try this:

    <LocationMatch "^/content/.*\.html$">
  # wipe both header tables
  Header unset Cache-Control
  Header always unset Cache-Control
  Header unset Expires
  Header always unset Expires

  # set once, at the very end
  Header always set Cache-Control "no-store, no-cache, max-age=0, must-revalidate"
  Header always set Pragma "no-cache"
  Header always set Surrogate-Control "no-store"
</LocationMatch>

    also:

    • Ensure this block is in the vhost that loads last (or move it to default.vhost), so nothing overwrites it later.

    • Grep your codebase for setHeader("Cache-Control" and remove any max-age=300 on HTML responses.

    and verify:

    curl -I https://your.site/.../page.html | tr -d '\r' | egrep -i 'cache-control|surrogate-control'

    You should see a single Cache-Control (your value) and Surrogate-Control: no-store.

    Santosh Sai
      Karishma_begumSh
      Karishma_begumSh
      Level 4
      September 16, 2025

      Hi @ganthira1 

      The max-age=300 is coming from dispatcher’s default caching (not Apache).

      In dispatcher.any, allow dispatcher to forward your custom headers instead of appending its own:

      /cache { /headers { "Cache-Control" "Pragma" "Surrogate-Control" } }

      Then your <LocationMatch> rules will take effect and max-age=300 won’t be added.

       

      Hope this helpful.:)

       

      Regards,

      Karishma.

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