You aren’t the only one having problems with W3 Total Cache, but unfortunately, I was never able to reproduce the same issue, it always works for me when I use the settings of W3 Total Cache to serve a different cache for mobile. Probably, there are some situations when it doesn’t work. I suggest you open a thread on the support forum of W3 Total Cache.
Before opening a thread with them, I first suggest you:
Be sure you have the proper settings to serve a different cache for mobile. I will tell you what always works for me. I go to Performance => Cache Groups I create a new group and call it for example “Mobile” I check the checkbox “Enable” I write this in the text area:
*mobile *mobile* mobile
And I can assure you, it always works for me, even on different installations with totally different plugins and theme. I’m surprised so many users have this issue with W3 Total Cache.
Be sure there aren’t other layers of cache before W3 Total Cache, for example your server, or a CDN
Here you have a picture of the configuration that I suggested above:
In the picture you have also “MOBILE”…, but when I save the settings W3TotalCache keeps only what I wrote in the list. So, no matter, you can write only what I wrote in the list above.
If it doesn’t work, open a thread with W3 Total Cache and explain that you want a separate cache for mobile, but you see always the same cache.
Thanks for the prompt response. However, the above suggestion doesn’t work and causes 500 internal server error instead, but I was able to fixed it by removing the added cache group for mobile in .htaccess.
I might ask my host provider if they can serve a different cache to mobile devices.
If the above doesn’t work do you have other suggestion to resolve this?