There is an icon to refresh Gradle project which is very useful if auto-import is disabled:
When I hover over it, status bar says Force refresh all linked Gradle projects
.
However, I cannot find any way to assign keyboard shortcuts for this button and also I don't see it in CTRLSHIFTA menu. Is there any way to invoke this refresh using just a keyboard?
I'm using IDEA 2016.3 EAP.
You can use "Refresh external project" (for currently selected) or "Refresh all external projects". These actions are available in the find actions menu (CtrlShiftA) and can also be assigned a shortcut in the keymap settings as there is no default assigned.
Note that the menu item when right-clicking a Gradle project in the tool menu is also labeled "refresh external project".