Good but use with caution

  • [Topic decapped – please do not yell here]

    have used this plugin for a number of sites and while it does the job there is one aspect that is a strong negative.

    For some reason this plugin generates tens if not hundreds of thousands of files on the server that has caused me some grief with my hosting service (Bluehost) to the point where they advised they may have to disable my account.

    What I find particularly troublesome is that there is no mention in the plugin settings or the documentation that this proliferation of files may occur. Nor is there any mention of which settings may trigger this. It wasn’t until Bluehost notified me of the problem that I was aware of this issue.

    Due to these issues I have deleted the plugin from all the websites I maintain.

    NOTE TO DEVELOPER:
    I think it would be in everyones best interest if you clearly identified which settings caused this problem and also put warnings in the plugin settings screen so that this problem can be avoided. It really does tarnish what otherwise is an excellent plugin.

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  • Hi. That sounds unusual. Where were those files being saved on the server? Are you using disk or disk-enchanced for page and database caching? If so then the files that are written to your server are the cache files that W3 Total Cache generates. This is normal procedure.
    These cache files (static files) are then served back to your visitors – which stops WordPress from having to query your database everytime. This results in a much, much faster experience, less load on server CPU, more visitors can be served at once, etc, etc.
    If you never empty/flush the cache and you have a large site (and lot’s of visitors) then it can get very large. But all you need to do is empty it and it will start filling up again. I would recommend looking into this a bit further because you should use a caching plugin – the performance advantage on a busy, complex website is incredible.

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