Large Website Backup file – W3 Total Cache

  • Resolved may

    (@mcp2019)


    1 year, 9 months ago

    Hi all,

    I’ve been experiencing this issue since a few days.

    I’ve not made major changes to the website, but after I did – last week, I created a backup file with All-in One Migrate and the backup file size, which was around 300MB before, was suddenly 900MB after!

    After some testing with restoring backups and creating a new backup again, the same thing happened, only now I didn’t make any changes to the website. This is what I did: I restored an older backup (around 300MB) from before the file size issue. Then I created a backup immediately after restoring the old backup but without editing the website and the new backup was 700MB. I tested another two times after this and the new backups were 1GB and 2GB even.

    When deactivating the plugins one by one I found out that when W3 Total Cache was deactivated, the website backup files were back to 300MB again.

    What am I missing here?

    Would appreciate your feedback.

    • This topic was modified 1 year, 9 months ago by may.
Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)
  • Plugin Contributor Marko Vasiljevic

    (@vmarko)

    Hello @mcp2019

    Thank you for reaching out and I am happy to assist you with this.
    This may happen depending on the website size and also if your caching method for Cache modules in W3 Total Cache is set to disk. Persistent Disk caching can cause a lot of files to be cached to your disk, Page Cache, Object Cache, Database cache…

    Can you please check and share which folder within the wp-content/cache/ has a lot of MB?

    Thanks!

    Thread Starter may

    (@mcp2019)

    Hi @vmarko,

    Thanks for your assistance. I really can’t tell which folder within wp-content/cache/ has a lot of MB. Because the filesizes seem pretty normal when I look into these folders with Filezilla.

    Like you suggested, the Page Caching method is indeed set to Disk: enhanced, which is also the recommended method for shared servers. The same applies for Database Cache. Object Cache is disabled.

    I do regularly use the Purge All Caches link in the top menu within the WordPress Dashboard. Will this do the same thing as Save & Purge Caches within W3’s Dashboard, for instance under Page Cache?

    Appreciate your feedback.

    • This reply was modified 1 year, 9 months ago by may.
    Plugin Contributor Marko Vasiljevic

    (@vmarko)

    Hello @mcp2019

    Thank you for your feedback.
    Well, indeed this is a pickle. The only thing that comes to my mind is that the cache size in the cache folder is huge. You confirmed that the Object Cache is disabled and I would suggest the same for Database Cache when on shared servers, as fetching the data from the database is faster these days than fetching from the Disk.

    Try manually deleting the /cache/ folder (or make a backup then delete it), and try website backup after this.

    To answer your other question, the Purge All Caches link in the top menu within the WordPress Dashboard. is the same as Save & Purge Caches, except the Save & Purge Caches should be used when changing the settings within the W3 Total Cache, and Purge All Caches link in the top menu within the WordPress Dashboard when changing the content in your website.

    I hope this helps!
    Thanks!

    Thread Starter may

    (@mcp2019)

    Hi @vmarko,

    Thanks for your thoughts. Very helpful!

    I’ve not experienced the issue for 2 days now. I guess somehow, when purging the caches in the W3 environment, instead of just the Page Cache, it has cleared old data? Because since then, my backup files have been around 300MB again.

    So, problem solved. Thank you!


Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)
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