How do I refresh Netbeans workspace?

Within NetBeans:

select "Source" > "Scan for External Changes" 

this will force the IDE to look for changes and "Refresh" the file structure.

I develop PHP within NetBeans and am frequently creating new files outside of the IDE. This does the trick every time and works quickly.

I think below is the best Answer to that. While Scan for External Changes takes a while.

Instead.

Tools->Options->Miscellaneous->Files and uncheck Enable-auto-scanning of source. Then it will give an option like Refresh Folder.

This is cool against scanning the whole project to see changes in one folder.