Hello Jason,
Thank you for reaching out!
Please follow the instructions below to completely remove the W3 Total Cache.
1. Check .htaccess File (make a backup)
W3TC will create many directives in the .htaccess file to control caching behavior. Each section will start and end with comments like “#BEGIN W3TC Page Cache core” and “#END W3TC Page Cache core”.
Ensure that no residual entries are leftover in your .htaccess file after deleting the plugin.
2. Delete wp-content files and folders
– cache folder
– w3tc-config folder
– object-cache.php (if exists)
– advanced-cache.php (if exists)
– db.php (if exists)
– upgrade folder
– delete w3-total-cache folder in wp-content/plugins/ (if exists)
3. Delete Cached Files from CDN (if using CDN)
Besides deleting all the relevant files, if you use CDN then ensure to purge the cached content from your CDN. This is necessary when you enabled the minify option in W3TC settings. You should delete the minified and combined scripts and CSS files from your CDN server to avoid the site breaking on the browser.
4. Go to your wp dashboard and re-install W3 Total Cache
5.Please make sure not to use DB caching or OC caching (Disk caching method) if on shared hosting as it’s not recommended to use this anyway if you don’t have VPS or a Dedicated server.
Thanks!