W3 total cache is one of the those plugin, which I always recommend everyone to install for faster loading of the site. Though, at times due to hosting compatibility issues or due to non-compatibility with other plugins, total cache act weird and it’s important to uninstall W3 total cache manually or automatically.
Earlier I have shared How to Install W3 Total Cache plugin which is said to be better cache plugin than Super cache plugin. Though sometime W3 total cache plugin contradicts with any of your current plugin and you might get weird issues like your individual pages will give 404 error or your blog might be redirected to Install.php.
Possible solution to this problem is uninstalling W3 total cache plugin and here I’m sharing a quick tutorial on how you can remove W3 total cache plugin manually.
To uninstall W3 total cache plugin, you need to follow following procedure:
- Delete W3 total Cache plugin from Wp-content/plugins folder
- Remove this line from Wp-config file (define(‘WP_CACHE’, true) )
- Delete advanced-cache.php, db.php, wp-total-cache-config.php and delete entire w3tc folder from wp-content folder.
- Check .htaccess file and if you see any code added by w3 total cache plugin, do remove it.
I hope this will help to resolve your problem. If you are not comfortable following above steps, get in touch via ShoutMeLoud WordPress Services page.
Do let us know which WordPress cache plugin are you using and which one would you recommend to others?
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Article by Harsh Agrawal
Harsh has written 1206 articles.
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{ 20 comments… read them below or add one }
Really a helpful post . I have found this in many cases. I never knew the second point (define(‘WP_CACHE’, true) ) was to be deleted.
Ankita that line is usually added by cache plugin like Super cache and W3 total cache and that’s an important part of uninstalling any cache plugin.
as afar as i know W3 total cache is a premium plugin and many new bloggers do not go with it. They still use WP-Super cache plugin
Vivek It’s a free WordPress plugin.. Though using W3 total cache need advnaced knowledge unlike Super cache..As it has lots of settings..!!
In you last post you had said that W3 Cache plugin is better cache plugin than Super cache plugin. and as you were using it, i too installed this plugin. and i am confused which should i use. let me me know which one you are using Right now.
Ashwin at this moment I’m using Super cache on ShoutMeLoud and CallingAllGeeks and on many other blogs like wphostingdiscount.com I’m using W3 total cache plugin…
Haven’t tried to delete the plugin as I am entirely comfortable with it. If I get to know something beats this cache plugin then I will follow your tutorial while deleting the plugin. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for your comment Sathish. Such posts come handy when you break something or in the middle of nowhere…!! Hopefully someday this post might be useful for you.
You are right Harsh, I am facing this issue on one of my site since morning only & here you come with a solution to it. Thanks a ton !
Glad it helped you Prabal.
Harsh, right now while I’m reading this article, I have this issue with my blog! i couldn’t fix with the above though, i contacted the hosting guys, and they fixed it.
w3 total cache caused a break on lazyloader plugin as it stoped working. I disabled and installed it but lazylaoder never worked back so I think I have to manually remove it like the way you mentioned.
For a long time I was struggling to remove WP cache plugin in one of my blogs. It was breaking my rss feed. But now with the help of this blog post and few other posts I have removed it successfully.
I deleted it on the 2nd or 3rd I install WP… And using WP Super Cache…
Thanks for this man, I’ve been trying to figure out what else the plugin has done to my files and database.
I wanted to completely remove the plugin as I don’t find it necessary since my site is just a very small site.
I just wanted to add – the plugin will actually create a table called ‘wp_w3tc_cdn_queue’ in the mySQL database, you might want to delete this as well.
i am also having the same problem after installing this plugin..
i did all the above steps but then to the problem is not getting solved….
Thanks for the help, this article is helped me tons! Thank you very much.
w3 total cache is really useful for website loading speed, but sometimes bothers me when doing the edit template…
I haven’t deactivated the plugin yet but the line from Wp-config file (define(‘WP_CACHE’, true) ) is not present and i don’t where is .htaccess file in my server. Help plz…
When I deleted W3 Total Cache using the plugin panel of the dashboard, the site became unavailable (500 error). The key was to go into .htaccess and remove the lines that Total Cache had added.
Harsh, your fourth bullet held the answer. Thanks!