Hi @prince1331
I hope you’re well today!
The message that you are getting is usually correct. GZip compression is a “server side thing” and Hummingbird only controls its settings, provided that
– it’s available at all (the “mod_deflate” Apache module mentioned in the error message)
– that it’s configured on server in a way that it can actually take “custom” settings from sites .htaccess (it may be “fixed” on server level instead)
– and that .htaccess is writable – WordPress can write to it.
There are some cases too when the message shows up but it’s “false positive”, meaning that GZip compression is working but something’s blocking Hummingbird form checking it – so it’s not able to confirm that.
First step then would be to actually confirm if it’s working or not, using external checking service such as e.g. GiftOfSpeed
https://www.giftofspeed.com/gzip-test/
Simply put your site’s URL into the input field there and click “Check” and you’ll get additional information on whether compression is enabled or not and on what resources.
If this service confirms that GZip is on, then you can safely ignore that message in Hummingbird.
If it confirms it’s not enabled, then:
1. is your site behind CloudFlare or similar CDN? if yes, then
– either connect CloudFlare to Hummingbird (via “Hummingibrd -> Caching -> Integrations”) page, clear all caches after that and re-check Gzip Compression
– or double-check settings directly at CloudFlare
2. if site is not behind CloudFlare (or Hummingbird is already connected to it), then
– make sure that .htaccess is writable (just temporarily), go to “Hummingbird -> Gzip Compression” page and if it still says Gzip is disabled try re-checking status;
3. if still nothing, please do contact your host and ask them if “mod_deflate” is enabled for your site and if it’s set to compress HTML, JavaScript and CSS assets; if it’s not, you will need to ask your host to enable it.
Alternatively, if you are using Page Cache in Hummingbird, you can enable “Server compressed versions of cached files” option in Page Cache settings but be noted that this is more of a “fallback workaround” rather than “ultimate solution” – it only applies to some resources and only when they are served from cache. But if nothing else is possible, it’s better than no compression at all.
Kind regards,
Adam
