When Does WP Rocket Delete Which Files?

Below you'll find the specific triggers which cause the contents of each of WP Rocket's folders to be deleted.

/cache/www.example.com

• Clear Cache lifespan
• Only files older than the specified lifespan will be deleted. 
• When WP Rocket settings are changed
• Automatic triggers:
  • See our guide: How Often is the Cache Updated
  • View the related code on GitHub
• Manual triggering of Clear Cache (from the WP Rocket admin toolbar, or WP Rocket Dashboard tab)
• When the cache is cleared by calling rocket_clean_domain
• Can also be triggered by hosting/caching compatibilities to keep the caches in sync (e.g. on WP Engine and others )
• When Elementor’s CSS Print Method is set to External File, if a post or the Elementor CSS of a post is updated.
• Updating WP Rocket, depending on the type of changes included in the new version.
• After the dynamic lists of exclusions are automatically imported each week.

Related function: rocket_clean_domain

/cache/min

• Manual triggering of Clear Cache (from the WP Rocket admin toolbar, or WP Rocket Dashboard tab)
• Deactivation of CSS/JS Minify (not Combine)
• Is NOT deleted when Clear Cache lifespan is triggered or via a cron job using ONLY rocket_clean_domain
• Is deleted when clearing cache is triggered via a cron job using rocket_clean_domain AND rocket_clean_minify
• Beaver builder cache clear
• When Elementor's CSS Print Method is set to External File, and the Elementor CSS in a post is updated, the CSS files in this folder are deleted.

Related function: rocket_clean_minify

/cache/busting

• Manual triggering of Clear Cache (from the WP Rocket admin toolbar, or WP Rocket Dashboard tab)
• ⚠️ Is NOT deleted when Clear Cache lifespan is triggered or  via a cron job using rocket_clean_domain
• When Elementor's CSS Print Method is set to External File, and the Elementor CSS in a post is updated, the CSS files in this folder are deleted.

Related function: rocket_clean_cache_busting

/cache/critical-css

•    When the theme is changed
•    When Load CSS Asynchronously is enabled
•    When a regeneration of Critical Path CSS is triggered

Related function: clean_critical_css()

/cache/used-css

• Manual triggering of Clear Used CSS via the WP Rocket toolbar menu
• Switching themes
• Changing the items added to Remove Unused CSS's CSS safelist text area
• Updating WP Rocket from a version prior to 3.11

For specific pages/posts:

• Editing a post/page
• Clearing a post/page cache
• Editing/deleting terms
• When the comment count changes

💡In some cases 3rd party plugins/themes/hosts could also be using our “clean” functions in their code