Title: Does uninstalling W3 Total Cache remove data correctly?
Last modified: April 15, 2026

---

# Does uninstalling W3 Total Cache remove data correctly?

 *  Resolved [Oclair](https://wordpress.org/support/users/oclair/)
 * (@oclair)
 * [1 month, 3 weeks ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/does-uninstalling-w3-total-cache-remove-data-correctly/)
 * Does the W3 Total Cache not fully remove data correctly and leaves a website 
   in an unstable state?
 * Upon uninstalling W3 Total Cache I get the following notice about my website
 * Autoloaded options could affect performance Performance Autoloaded options are
   configuration settings for plugins and themes that are automatically loaded with
   every page load in WordPress. Having too many autoloaded options can slow down
   your site. Your site has 1083 autoloaded options (size: 1 MB) in the options 
   table, which could cause your site to be slow. You can review the options being
   autoloaded in your database and remove any options that are no longer needed 
   by your site. More info about optimizing autoloaded options

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)

 *  Thread Starter [Oclair](https://wordpress.org/support/users/oclair/)
 * (@oclair)
 * [1 month, 3 weeks ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/does-uninstalling-w3-total-cache-remove-data-correctly/#post-18880876)
 * DELETE FROM wp_options WHERE option_name IN (‘_transient_dirsize_cache’, ‘_transient_timeout_dirsize_cache’);
 * fixed the issue being reported…
 *  Thread Starter [Oclair](https://wordpress.org/support/users/oclair/)
 * (@oclair)
 * [1 month, 3 weeks ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/does-uninstalling-w3-total-cache-remove-data-correctly/#post-18883294)
 * I also was notified there was a file called nginx.conf in my wordpress directory.
   This file was created by W3 Total Cache and left in place despite selecting remove
   plugin data during the uninstall process. There was no mention regarding it during
   the uninstall process that the admin must review certain files abandoned during
   the removal of the plugin using the uninstall process.
 * The contents of the nginx.conf file created by W3 Total Cache is as follows:
 * BEGIN W3TC Minify core
   rewrite ^/wp-content/cache/minify/ /index.php last; END
   W3TC Minify core
 *  Plugin Contributor [Marko Vasiljevic](https://wordpress.org/support/users/vmarko/)
 * (@vmarko)
 * [1 month, 2 weeks ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/does-uninstalling-w3-total-cache-remove-data-correctly/#post-18891859)
 * Hello [@oclair](https://wordpress.org/support/users/oclair/)
 * Thank you for your feedback.
   Can you please clarify in which folder the nginx.
   conf file is created? The plugin may create configuration files if the rewrite
   is needed.To confirm, do you have all the necessary permissions as a user to 
   remove/add the files?
 * Thanks!
 *  Thread Starter [Oclair](https://wordpress.org/support/users/oclair/)
 * (@oclair)
 * [1 month, 2 weeks ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/does-uninstalling-w3-total-cache-remove-data-correctly/#post-18891874)
 * Thank you for your reply, I reviewed my initial post and I indicated the W3 Total
   Cache plugin created the file in the wordpress root directory. But the file was
   not removed upon deinstallation.
 * That particular WordPress install has ownership of that directory and php-fpm
   runs it as that same user and group (FreeBSD 15.0)
 * Thank you and have a nice day!

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)

You must be [logged in](https://login.wordpress.org/?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Fwordpress.org%2Fsupport%2Ftopic%2Fdoes-uninstalling-w3-total-cache-remove-data-correctly%2F%3Foutput_format%3Dmd&locale=en_US)
to reply to this topic.

 * ![](https://ps.w.org/w3-total-cache/assets/icon-256x256.png?rev=1041806)
 * [W3 Total Cache](https://wordpress.org/plugins/w3-total-cache/)
 * [Frequently Asked Questions](https://wordpress.org/plugins/w3-total-cache/#faq)
 * [Support Threads](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/w3-total-cache/)
 * [Active Topics](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/w3-total-cache/active/)
 * [Unresolved Topics](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/w3-total-cache/unresolved/)
 * [Reviews](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/w3-total-cache/reviews/)

## Tags

 * [options table](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/options-table/)

 * 4 replies
 * 2 participants
 * Last reply from: [Oclair](https://wordpress.org/support/users/oclair/)
 * Last activity: [1 month, 2 weeks ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/does-uninstalling-w3-total-cache-remove-data-correctly/#post-18891874)
 * Status: resolved