W3TC Causes Garbled Code Display on Pages

KennyLL
(@kennyll)

6 years, 4 months ago
We’re just launching a new site and are enabling W3TC for the first time. We updated it to v.0.9.5.2 before enabling.

But enabling W3TC produces pages of garbled code until I refresh the page once (I’m assuming this caches it).

Not sure if this will come through OK, but here’s a sample of some of the page output:
```
��\{o�Ɩ�ߟb����^Q/�cK��&m.��E#r$MLr�G����b�]<code>���w������̐)˶��i�b�Z��q�3�=Ü|��������s6NàB��F=GD'b(g=G��</code>L?i��(n���Gf��I �ˍD=G��@����y,zN*fi���ac�99��t�T�T��&MO��i�z*JE����V(#9����
```
�i�� pX��oxc�h��_��=�i ��aϣ�LT<��k��8
`

I matched the settings to other sites we run, which I gained from a support site outlining preferred/optimal settings.

Ideas???

Viewing 15 replies - 1 through 15 (of 31 total)

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smartyp
(@smartyp)

6 years, 4 months ago

Seen the same thing here – appears to be pages only as you say (+ homepage), not posts. Also on 4.7.1.

nigro.simone
(@nigrosimone)

6 years, 4 months ago

you ha purged all caches?

Thread Starter KennyLL
(@kennyll)

6 years, 4 months ago

Just an update. It appears that this only happens when I enabled gzip compression in the Browser Cache settings.

So I checked my .htaccess file and DID initially see that it had separate code to enable gzip above the W3TC code. But when I removed that code I got the same behavior.

When I disable gzip in W3TC but add the functionality manually in my .htaccess, I don’t get the garbled code. But a couple cached JS files don’t get gzipped.

I saw the FAQ about this issue, but it references using ‘flush()’ in your theme code. We use a customized child theme of Genesis, and I checked through our theme files (there’s only a few) and saw no mention of ‘flush’.

Hope this helps narrow down the issue. For now, I’m leaving gzip off.

tokyodev
(@tokyodev)

6 years, 4 months ago

Same thing happened to me. Have been using W3TC on the site for several years with no problems, however, for some reason all of my pages and posts earlier today looked like KennyLL posted above. Couldn’t figure out what was going on. As I was trying different things I deactivated W3TC and now my site is back to normal.
kj Rocker
(@kj-rocker)

6 years, 4 months ago
Same here seems like it started happening after the update
- This reply was modified 6 years, 4 months ago by kj Rocker.
sweettea2
(@sweettea2)

6 years, 4 months ago
Ditto. I noticed the issue on two sites I webmaster too. Disabling W3TC or disabling the Page Cache or gzip compression in the Browser Cache settings as mentioned above seemed to help. I really hope this can be fixed!

Also, weird thing is that Chrome/GTMetrix and http://www.gidnetwork.com/tools/gzip-test.php say the home page of one of the sites is gzipped even with the gzip compression setting unchecked in W3TC.
- This reply was modified 6 years, 4 months ago by sweettea2.
semproz
(@semproz)

6 years, 4 months ago

Hi,
Same thing here… 30 of my clients the same error with the layout.
i had to disable the plugin..

Any suggestions what to do ?
niska
(@niska)

6 years, 4 months ago
I have the same problem. All my pages gives garbeled output on first pageload. Second pageload it is working again. But I have a lot of pages.

I have deleted all cache, but no difference. I have restarted nginx, bot no difference.

I tried to use older version of W3TC but it says I cannot active. So for now I have disabled the plugin completely.
- This reply was modified 6 years, 4 months ago by niska.
dkatg
(@dkatg)

6 years, 4 months ago

I’m experiencing “internal server error” codes and sometimes display of what looks like Avada theme code since updating W3 Total Cache this morning. The problem was sudden and no changes were made on the site other than the update. I tried purging the cache but that didn’t seem to help. I’ve deactivated W3 Total Cache for now. Will check this thread for news.

Kona Macphee
(@kona)

6 years, 4 months ago

Yes, I’m seeing the same problem on multiple sites after updating to the latest version of W3TC this morning. Switching off Gzip compression seems to resolve the issue.

thetester113
(@thetester113)

6 years, 4 months ago

I am having the same issue. I upgraded the plugin, then all my posts (not only pages) showed weird characters. I also had a hard time disabling it. It also forced the maintenance mode on one occasion. The only thing I had to do to fix the issue is disabling the plugin.
Zeokat
(@zeokat)

6 years, 4 months ago
A little suggestion for all who are reporing this issue. You should provide more details about your scenario:
- Which server are you using and version? (Apache, nginx, …)
- Which operating system are you using and version? (Linux, Windows,…)
- Which PHP versión are you using?
Remember that these points are very important to get support and help from developer/community. I keep on previous plugin version for now until this issue is cleared.
semproz
(@semproz)

6 years, 4 months ago

On my VPS i am using PHP v 5.6+ i had no errors atall…
Seems the error appear if the server PHP v is 5.4 or less
(atleast for me)

ta5ae
(@ta5ae)

6 years, 4 months ago

Thanks for the reminder Zeokat.

Thanks all for your feedback. I experienced the same issues on this platform:

PHPv 5.3.3-7+squeeze29 WordPress Version 4.7.1 Apache/2.2.16 (Debian)

Disabling the page cache worked for me.

Kona Macphee
(@kona)

6 years, 4 months ago

Problem is occurring with fully up to date WP (4.7.1) and all plugins, with PHP version 5.3.29.

Problem does NOT seem to be occurring on installations running PHP 5.5.21.