Why/when would W3TC serve a html_old file rather than create a new one?

  • Resolved jamieburchell

    (@jamieburchell)


    1 month, 4 weeks ago

    When I have purged the W3TC cache files, my page_enhanced directory has all its files renamed with an “.html_old” extension. However, I have noticed that sometimes when requesting a page that this file is served to the browser and a new one is not created.

    In what circumstances does W3TC decide to serve an old version of the stored HTML instead of creating a new one?

    I checked that by actually removing the “.html_old” file, I can force W3TC to generate and serve a new file.

Viewing 2 replies - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)
  • Plugin Contributor Marko Vasiljevic

    (@vmarko)

    Hello @jamieburchell

    Thank you for reaching out and I am happy to help!
    THis is the default behavior, once the cache is purged or invalidated, the files are renamed to _old, This is a “stale cache” and it’ served to the users to prevent any downtime and to improve user experience.
    The Garbage collection interval is used to delete those files after a set interval.
    Once the _old file is created and if the Garbagle collection interval did not hit, the cache would be re-built if the page is re-visited.
    Is the behavior related to the Elementor CSS issue you are reffering to in the other topic?

    Thanks!

    Thread Starter jamieburchell

    (@jamieburchell)

    Hi @vmarko

    It’s just something I observed happening during my testing. It could be related, I’m not sure. I’m wondering if it causes a problem serving stale cache after a purge because the stylesheets referenced in those old files may have been rebuilt/renamed during an Elementor CSS flush/minify flush.

Viewing 2 replies - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)
  • You must be logged in to reply to this topic.