LifterLMS FAQs on Caching and Password Reset

Page caching, database caching, and object caching may cause issues with LifterLMS.

While, caching can be a great tool for faster loading, so much of LifterLMS serves content specific to the currently logged in user and for this reason serving static cached pages can cause issues with LifterLMS.

Troubleshooting in LifterLMS

If you are having issues with:

• Your password reset screens
• Newly students being shown an invalid username/password combination
• Students who are enrolled being shown the sales page for a course/membership

You may be experiencing caching issues on your site.

If you’re running any of these plugins:

W3 Total Cache
WP Rocket
WP Fastest Cache
SG Optimizer
Jetpack
(or any other caching plugin you’ve installed)

or if you are using something like Cloudflare, WP Engine or GoDaddy, the first step you’ll want to take in determining if you are experiencing a caching issue is turn the plugin off or turn off the settings that come with your site host in regard to caching.

If turning the caching system off fixes the issue then you can simply leave it turned off or remove the plugin.

However, if you have a caching plugin like WP Rocket or W3 Total Cache you can disable caching for all logged in users.

In WP Rocket this can be done under Cache Setting->User Cache. 

In W3 Total Cache this can be done by going to Performance->Page Cache and selecting: don’t cache pages for logged in users.  

For Cloudflare here is great documentation on how to tell the data center what to cache.

If this is not an option on the caching plugin you’re using then you can look for an exclude from cache option like in WP Fastest Cache. This option will give you a way to exclude certain pages from being cached.

In this case you will want to make sure that the following LifterLMS Pages are excluded from caching.

• Student Dashboard
• Checkout / Purchase Page

Excluding logged in students from caching or excluding the above pages from being cached will ensure that any dynamic content related to course progress, lessons, and quizzes will always be served to the user as that specific user should see it.

If your password reset screen never displays a confirmation message after entering an email address you’re likely encountering a caching issue and should add the page to your cache exclusions.

If newly created students are not able to login or are being shown an invalid username/password combination it’s likely that your server has database or object caching enabled. Disabling these caches should resolve the issue.

There maybe a time where you’ve cleared out all your site’s cache, or turned your caching plugin off but your student is still experiencing the issue!

This is because web browsers themselves are designed to download pages into the individual computer’s cache. As a result, users may themselves may need to clear their cache.

A fast easy way for users to do this is a forced refresh. This is done by hitting ctrl + F5 on Windows and command + R on Mac.

For other methods of clearing browser cache see: Refresh your cache

This is a training webinar about caching we did with the WordPress caching plugin WP Rocket