Picture in index.html file will load if I include "index.html" in the URL, but not otherwise

[donald_1234]

Here is the strangest problem I've ever encountered. I have an index.html file as the home page on my personal website. In that file, I have a link to a graphic (jpg) file. I have a duplicate of the site on my personal computer. The link works fine there. It also works fine online if I write "index.html" after the site name (e.g., "www.mywebsite.com/index.html"). But if I don't (www.mywebsite.com), I get everything I expect to get EXCEPT this one particular graphic. It doesn't show up, and the space it normally occupies is gone as well. It's as if the line of code in the index.html document didn't exist. The link, by the way, is to another URL, and if I copy and paste that URL into my browser, I get the graphic with no problem, so there's no issue of it being an invalid link.

I hope I'm explaining this properly. The key issue is that when I input the web address into the browser field without adding "/index.html", I get a different (and wrong) result from when I do input "/index.html". The problem occurs in all browsers I've tried - Firefox, Chrome, and Edge. Aren't browsers all supposed to search for an index.html file by default? Why should writing it out make a difference, and how do I fix this?

Very grateful for any ideas. I'm really scratching my head over this one.

[BenPleysier]

Please supply a link to the site so that we can see what is happening.

[donald_1234]

It's donaldclarke.net. Try it with and without "/index.html" after it. But give it another hour or so. I uploaded a test index.html page to my server and it still shows up on my browsers even though I've cleared the caches, done a hard refresh, etc.

[BenPleysier]

With index.html

and without

No difference!

[donald_1234]

Yeah, it's working now. But it wasn't before. Weird. Still grateful to hear any theories anyone might have, just to be ready for next time.

[Jon Fritz]

Just a wild guess or two...

All assets being called into a secure page need to be secure. Secure and insecure content can't be displayed on the same secure page. That would cause a graphic from an insecure site to remain unloaded on a secure page.

Overzealous, sticky browser, or possibly even server, caching could do it.

Accidental home page duplication (index.html and index.htm for example), reaching one via a specific link on the site and another by server default.

...or gremlins...

...or wombats...

[donald_1234]

Thanks. Seems like server caching had a lot to do with it.