Last updated on September 9th, 2013 at 01:53 pm
We had had cause to switch from a great caching plugin for WordPress, so another great cache option… the cache we’ve moved a few sites FROM – is W3 Total Cache – which as we said – is a good plugin.
However, due to some conflict with another plugin we needed, the switch to WP Super Cache was needed…
That said, the removal of W3 Total Cache was not smooth – in a couple of instances we had left the plugin turned off, but installed – until we had more time to work out how to remove the plugin without totally breaking the site. That time is now…
Before doing ANYTHING – we recommend backing up your database and filesystem – so you have a “clean restore” point – should things go wrong, or you mess something up.
We found out that the plugin doesn’t remove itself fully when you hit the “delete” option… there are files left around… and each one of them must be removed manually – using an FTP program, or shell access.
The files are found in the wp-content folder – which is normally at the top level of your wordpress install:
- w3-total-cache-config.php
- db.php
- advanced-cache-php
There are some other things you need to do in order to fully clean up… here is a detailed set of instructions we found online AFTER we struggled through the first steps… Basic cleanup of w3tc and w3tc-config folders, removing the wp-cache directive in the wp-config.php file etc.
http://redstarwebdevelopment.com/2013/05/03/how-to-remove-w3-total-cache/