you are doing that on Page_Load, that only runs when the page loads, that's why it updates when you refresh the page, if you want to force it to update you need to call DataBind again. I don't know how you are updating the database, You might need to set the autopostback of controls that update the database to true. In that case you won't need a separate call to the DataBind method because it's executed at the database level, however, it also depends on what you are doing the the dropdownlist, if you want to keep the selection the user makes you need to check the IsPostBack property and not bind the control every time the page loads,again, not knowing more is difficult to say how to do it.