W3 Total Cache Brotli, Gzip and Header Problem

Hello @chaklesh

I am sorry about the issues you are experiencing and I am happy to assist you with this.
It seems like you have double BC rules set either on your server (.htaccess/nginx) or you are using some CDN like Cloudflare or other CDN provider that is also setting the BC rules.
Try disabling Browser Cache in W3 Total Cache General settings, save all settings, and purge the cache.
Check your headers after that. If you are still seeing Cache-Control, vary: Accept-Encoding, and vary: Accept-Encoding, X-Forwarded-Proto it means that something else is setting these.
We haven’t been making any changes in W3 Total Cache in the past few months related to browser cache so possibly this is an issue with your environment.
Please make sure to share your website URL so we can check if possible and please let me know the result once Browser Cache is disabled.
Thanks!

if i remove page cache core code from htaccess, then vary has no cookie or X-Forwarded-Proto. Is there any way to disable this page cache core code in htaccess. The site is https://spot.nayag.com

If i deactivate the W3 Cache Plugins all vary headers X-Forwarded-Proto and Cookiees are removed. The vary header from my server

vary: Accept-Encoding

is added only if i use brotli compression of my server if i don’t use brotli it gets removed automatically. The problem is while Using the W3 Total cache plugin.

Hello @chaklesh

Thank you for the information.
The accept-encoding is set only when compression is on (gzip or brotli). So you need to make sure both options are off in this case.
Thanks!

i don’t want to Completely remove

vary: Accept-Encoding

What i want to remove is just the appended no cookie or X-Forwarded-Proto from

vary: Accept-Encoding,Cookie

and

vary: Accept-Encoding,X-Forwarded-Proto

.
I need plain

vary: Accept-Encoding

.
Have you got my point. Now, how can i achieve the same. These are appended by W3TC Page Cache core rules in htaccess, but if i remove these rules. It gets automatically inserted by plugin. Anyway to get rid of these appended header terms??

• This reply was modified 4 years, 1 month ago by chaklesh.

Hello @chaklesh

Thanks for the info.
Disable Page Cache, disable Gzip, and Brotli compression in Browser Cache.
Delete the W3TC Page Cache core rules from the .htaccess file and save the file.
Reload your website and let me know if you have a plain vary: Accept-Encoding
Thanks!

After disabling W3TC completely, i am getting plain vary:Accept-Encoding. I am sure these are being added by W3TC. Can you please tell me, which option of W3TC is adding these. Please let me know a way to disable these.
Thanks

Hello @chaklesh

As I mentioned in the previous post, you need to disable Page Cache, delete the W3TC Page Cache core rules from the .htaccess file, and disable Brotli and Gzip in the Browser Cache settings.
Thanks!

I have done everything you mentioned. I am getting plain vary header but i also need to use W3TC for caching and set the cache control headers. Isn’t there any way to just remove these terms from vary header and i also keep using W3TC plugin for caching. Have you any idea which part of plugin is adding these.

Hello @chaklesh

Thank you for the information.
The Page Cache and the Brotli and Gzip are setting those.
SO if you want’ to have plain vary: Accept-Encoding you should disable them as suggested above.
Thanks!

Even after disabling these, i m not getting plain vary header. But after disabling W3TC completely, i m getting vary plain. The problem is htaccess Page cache core rules which can not be removed even after disabling option in W3TC cache..these can only be removed after deactivating plugin. If i remove these core rules manually from htaccess, these are added automatically by plugin.Is there any way to remove core rules from htaccess and also keep using W3TC.
Thanks