[Plugin: W3 Total Cache] W3TC killed my site

Could be any number of things…. try doing it again but only activate the various features one at a time.

What exactly is the error in the web server error logs?

THIS PLUGIN IS A SITE-KILLER!

First, it wouldn’t install. <fatal error>

Demanded I add a line to my config file and re-attempt.

I did that, as directed.

KILLED THE SITE – “The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request.”

I removed the line from the config file. SITE STILL DEAD

Now, I’m trying to restore from a backup from yesterday.

i’ve used this plugin on plenty of sites… it used to have some trouble with script vars passed via wp_localize_script (and still might, i’m not sure) but it sure isn’t a ‘site killer’.

Frederick is on these boards a lot helping people (for free i might add) with his plugin. from a tech support point of view “killed my site” doesn’t help anybody help you. the more detailed and specific you can be about what went wrong, the more likely you are to get good help.

good luck!

I cannot retrieve the exact error messages without going through the process of killing the site again – and having to restore from the backup all over again. That, I’m not willing to do to *maybe* get help to *maybe* make the plugin work. The fact is I installed the plugin per instructions. I followed instructions the plugin gave during the install.

The site was in fact KILLED. This thing caused so much havoc I had to restore the root directory to get the site back up.

Sorry the plugin is a site-killer. Being defensive about it doesn’t change the fact.

I will add the information that I’m on WP 3.4.1 (most current) with the TwentyTen theme version 1.3 installed. Maybe that’s helpful to someone tinkering with the plugin code.

I wish someone had warned me this is a site-killer before I tried it – cost me an hour of time – and luckily not more because I had good backups.

Do you have a staging environment? Focusing on emotions and reactions is not productive. Nothing is perfect that’s why there’s a support channel. The key issue that makes caching difficult (which is why it was removed from WP itself!) was because of all the various hosting configurations out there. Labeling the plugin one way or another just isn’t a productive way to find a remedy, you’re invoking emotional reactions from people that not not having your experience.

So, testing on a your host in some non-production environment is the path to success if you cannot at least produce the error log messages.