{"id":3192,"date":"2008-05-28T15:39:49","date_gmt":"2008-05-28T10:09:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/?p=3192"},"modified":"2026-10-11T11:38:48","modified_gmt":"2026-10-11T06:08:48","slug":"fix-wp-super-cache-errors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/2008\/05\/fix-wp-super-cache-errors\/","title":{"rendered":"WP Super Cache Not Working? How to Fix No Cached Pages"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Is WP Super Cache not working on your WordPress site? You install it, switch caching on, the site loads fine, but no pages are ever cached. That is exactly what happened to me in 2008 when I moved from the old WP-Cache plugin to WP Super Cache. Here is how I fixed it then, and a complete 2026 checklist to fix WP Super Cache errors when it will not create cached pages.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-63806\" src=\"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-content\/uploads\/fix-wp-super-cache-errors-1024x538.webp\" alt=\"Fix WP Super Cache errors\" width=\"1024\" height=\"538\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-content\/uploads\/fix-wp-super-cache-errors-1024x538.webp 1024w, https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-content\/uploads\/fix-wp-super-cache-errors-300x158.webp 300w, https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-content\/uploads\/fix-wp-super-cache-errors-150x79.webp 150w, https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-content\/uploads\/fix-wp-super-cache-errors-768x403.webp 768w, https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-content\/uploads\/fix-wp-super-cache-errors.webp 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>Quick answer:<\/strong> If WP Super Cache shows no cached pages, check that <code>define( 'WP_CACHE', true );<\/code> is in wp-config.php, that wp-content\/advanced-cache.php belongs to WP Super Cache (not another cache plugin), and that wp-content\/cache is writable. Then turn caching on, use Test Cache, and check pages while logged out, because logged-in users are not served cached pages by default.<\/p>\n<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_89 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<label for=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6ae637c4e9cd5\" class=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-label\"><span class=\"ez-toc-cssicon\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #1a202c;color:#1a202c\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #1a202c;color:#1a202c\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/label><input type=\"checkbox\"  id=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6ae637c4e9cd5\" checked aria-label=\"Toggle\" \/><nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/2008\/05\/fix-wp-super-cache-errors\/#What_WP_Super_Cache_does\" >What WP Super Cache does<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/2008\/05\/fix-wp-super-cache-errors\/#WP_Super_Cache_not_working_Checklist\" >WP Super Cache not working? Checklist<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/2008\/05\/fix-wp-super-cache-errors\/#Common_causes_of_WP_Super_Cache_errors\" >Common causes of WP Super Cache errors<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-4\" href=\"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/2008\/05\/fix-wp-super-cache-errors\/#How_I_fixed_WP_Super_Cache_in_2008\" >How I fixed WP Super Cache in 2008<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-5\" href=\"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/2008\/05\/fix-wp-super-cache-errors\/#FAQ\" >FAQ<\/a><ul class='ez-toc-list-level-3' ><li class='ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-6\" href=\"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/2008\/05\/fix-wp-super-cache-errors\/#How_do_I_know_if_WP_Super_Cache_is_working\" >How do I know if WP Super Cache is working?<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-7\" href=\"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/2008\/05\/fix-wp-super-cache-errors\/#Is_WP_Super_Cache_still_maintained\" >Is WP Super Cache still maintained?<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-8\" href=\"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/2008\/05\/fix-wp-super-cache-errors\/#Should_I_use_Simple_or_Expert_mode\" >Should I use Simple or Expert mode?<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-9\" href=\"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/2008\/05\/fix-wp-super-cache-errors\/#Can_I_use_WP_Super_Cache_with_LiteSpeed_hosting\" >Can I use WP Super Cache with LiteSpeed hosting?<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"What_WP_Super_Cache_does\"><\/span>What WP Super Cache does<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/wordpress.org\/plugins\/wp-super-cache\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">WP Super Cache<\/a> is a free caching plugin from Automattic. It saves static HTML copies of your pages so most visitors get a fast page without WordPress running database queries. On busy sites or shared hosting, that saves a lot of server load.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"WP_Super_Cache_not_working_Checklist\"><\/span>WP Super Cache not working? Checklist<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<ol>\n<li><strong>Turn caching on:<\/strong> go to Settings &gt; WP Super Cache &gt; Easy, select <strong>Caching On<\/strong> and click <strong>Update Status<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Run Test Cache:<\/strong> on the same screen, click <strong>Test Cache<\/strong>. It fetches your homepage twice and compares timestamps.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Test while logged out:<\/strong> by default the plugin does not cache pages for known users (logged-in users and recent commenters). Open your site in a private window to test.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Check WP_CACHE:<\/strong> wp-config.php must contain <code>define( 'WP_CACHE', true );<\/code> above the line that says &#8220;That&#8217;s all, stop editing&#8221;.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Check advanced-cache.php:<\/strong> wp-content\/advanced-cache.php must be the WP Super Cache version. If another cache plugin created it, delete it and deactivate and reactivate WP Super Cache to recreate it.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Check folder permissions:<\/strong> wp-content and wp-content\/cache must be writable by the web server. The plugin creates wp-content\/cache\/supercache\/ for cached files.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Look at the page source:<\/strong> view the source of a page while logged out and scroll to the bottom. A comment like &#8220;Cached page generated by WP-Super-Cache&#8221; confirms it is working.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Use Expert mode carefully:<\/strong> in Advanced settings, Expert mode serves files with mod_rewrite rules in .htaccess. If those rules are missing or your server is Nginx, use Simple mode instead.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Common_causes_of_WP_Super_Cache_errors\"><\/span>Common causes of WP Super Cache errors<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Two cache plugins:<\/strong> running WP Super Cache with LiteSpeed Cache, W3 Total Cache or WP Rocket causes conflicts. Use only one page cache.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Host-level caching:<\/strong> some hosts already cache pages at the server. Use the host&#8217;s cache instead, or ask your host before adding a plugin.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Leftover files from an old plugin:<\/strong> as in my case below, an old advanced-cache.php can point to the wrong plugin.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Pages excluded:<\/strong> check the Rejected URLs and Rejected User Agents lists in Advanced settings.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Cookies and query strings:<\/strong> pages with GET parameters or certain cookies are not cached by design.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Expired pages not clearing:<\/strong> see our fix for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/2008\/11\/wp-super-cache-not-deleting-expired-pages\/\">WP Super Cache not deleting expired pages<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"How_I_fixed_WP_Super_Cache_in_2008\"><\/span>How I fixed WP Super Cache in 2008<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>The old WP-Cache plugin kept bringing this site down, so I switched to WP Super Cache. Activation went smoothly, but no pages were cached. I went through the official troubleshooting list: wp-content was writable, wp-cache-config.php was recreated, WP_CACHE was back in wp-config.php, and there were no PHP errors. But the supercache folder did not exist.<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><strong>Created the folder:<\/strong> I used <a href=\"https:\/\/filezilla-project.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">FileZilla<\/a> to create wp-content\/cache\/supercache\/ by hand. Still nothing.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Tried other settings:<\/strong> half-on mode, compression on and off, and checking the .htaccess mod_rewrite rules. Nothing worked.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Deleted advanced-cache.php:<\/strong> I had not been able to delete the old WP-Cache advanced-cache.php over FTP. It still pointed to wp-cache\/wp-cache-phase1.php instead of wp-super-cache\/wp-cache-phase1.php. I logged in over SSH with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.chiark.greenend.org.uk\/~sgtatham\/putty\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">PuTTY<\/a>, ran <code>rm wp-content\/advanced-cache.php<\/code>, then deactivated and reactivated the plugin so it created a fresh file.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>It started working straight away. The lesson still applies in 2026: when switching cache plugins, always remove the old advanced-cache.php.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"FAQ\"><\/span>FAQ<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"How_do_I_know_if_WP_Super_Cache_is_working\"><\/span>How do I know if WP Super Cache is working?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>Log out, load a page twice and view the source. The bottom should show a WP Super Cache comment with the time the page was cached.<\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Is_WP_Super_Cache_still_maintained\"><\/span>Is WP Super Cache still maintained?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>Yes. It is maintained by Automattic and listed on WordPress.org.<\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Should_I_use_Simple_or_Expert_mode\"><\/span>Should I use Simple or Expert mode?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>Simple mode is the safe default. Expert mode can be slightly faster on Apache servers with mod_rewrite, but needs correct .htaccess rules.<\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Can_I_use_WP_Super_Cache_with_LiteSpeed_hosting\"><\/span>Can I use WP Super Cache with LiteSpeed hosting?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>On LiteSpeed servers, the LiteSpeed Cache plugin is usually the better choice. Do not run both page caches together.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Is WP Super Cache not working on your WordPress site? You install it, switch caching on, the site loads fine,&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":63806,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_post_transparent":"default","_kad_post_title":"default","_kad_post_layout":"default","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"default","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"default","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[17],"class_list":["post-3192","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blogging","tag-wordpress"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3192","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3192"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3192\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":63810,"href":"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3192\/revisions\/63810"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}