How to Fix Web filter still detects old category even though recategorized

This article discusses an issue wherein a Web filter still detects/shows the ‘previous’ category of a website.

Scope

FortiGate.

Solution

For illustration purposes, ‘example.com’ will be used. It was previously categorized as ‘Unrated’ and was recently updated to ‘Health and Wellness’.

For illustration purposes, 'example.com' will be used. It was previously categorized as 'Unrated' and was recently updated to 'Health and Wellness'.

The category ‘Unrated’ is currently blocked on the web filter profile, while ‘Health And Wellness’ is allowed.

Upon accessing the site, it will be blocked due to still being categorized as ‘Unrated’.

This is due to the web filter cache of the FortiGate. The FortiGate stores the web filter categories in its cache for 60 minutes by default. For the FortiGate to poll our FortiGuard server again to pick up the new category, it is possible to clear its web filter cache.

To clear the web filter cache:

diagnose test application urlfilter 2

After clearing the cache, the FortiGate should allow the traffic now and it will detect that the ‘example.com’ is under the expected category ‘Health And Wellness’.