FAQ
Does it hammer my server?
Section titled “Does it hammer my server?”No. It runs a small batch per run, with a delay between requests, a 45-second ceiling per run, and adaptive pacing that backs off when the site slows down or the machine is under load. All of these are settings.
It is still real traffic to your own server. If you want more headroom, raise Delay between requests before you lower the batch size. The delay costs only wall-clock time; a smaller batch costs coverage.
Why are URLs never warmed on my low-traffic site?
Section titled “Why are URLs never warmed on my low-traffic site?”WP-Cron only fires when somebody visits, which a quiet site rarely has at night. Add a real cron entry at your host that calls the secret cron URL or wp brl-scw run. See Cron and WP-CLI.
Should I turn on the mobile pass?
Section titled “Should I turn on the mobile pass?”Yes, if your cache serves separate mobile copies, which LiteSpeed and most CDNs do. It doubles the requests per cycle, and the first cycle after you turn it on is slow, because every mobile page is built from scratch.
Every URL comes back MISS. Is the cache broken?
Section titled “Every URL comes back MISS. Is the cache broken?”Not on a first pass. The warming request is the one that builds the page, so its answer is MISS by definition. The copy it leaves behind is what the next visitor gets. That is why the cold share is only measured from the second pass on.
If URLs are still MISS after being warmed twice within your cache lifetime, something really is dropping the cache. A plugin that purges on every save is the usual one.
The mobile column stays cold.
Section titled “The mobile column stays cold.”Check that Mobile pass is on, then check the Mobile user agent. It must contain a token your cache recognises: Mobile, Android, Silk/, Kindle, BlackBerry, Opera Mini or Opera Mobi. Without one, the request lands in the desktop bucket.
What counts as cold?
Section titled “What counts as cold?”Only a real MISS. Bypass and no cache are decisions your stack made on purpose, and unknown means no cache header could be read. None of those count as cold.
No cache header was detected.
Section titled “No cache header was detected.”The warmer still fetches your pages; it just cannot tell you whether they were kept. Find the header in your browser’s network tab and put its name in Settings > Cache header. If there is no page cache in front of WordPress at all, warming has nothing to fill.
The queue is empty, or the sitemap could not be read.
Section titled “The queue is empty, or the sitemap could not be read.”Open the sitemap URL in a browser first. Most of the time it is at a different address than the default <domain>/sitemap_index.xml, or the SEO plugin that makes it was never finished setting up. Put the right address in Settings > Sitemap URL and click Rebuild the queue.
Failing that, Content fallback walks your published posts, pages, products and archives instead.
A run stops before finishing the batch, and the log says time limit.
Section titled “A run stops before finishing the batch, and the log says time limit.”That is intended. A run stops after 45 seconds so PHP cannot kill it halfway, and the rest go first next time. If you see it on every run, lower Batch size, or raise Requests at a time so more URLs fit in the same time.
The admin page hangs when I press “Run one batch now”.
Section titled “The admin page hangs when I press “Run one batch now”.”Your server handles one PHP request at a time, so the warm requests wait behind the admin request that sent them. This happens on local dev servers and on a php-fpm pool with one worker. Let the background worker do the warming, or raise the number of PHP workers.
Is the cron URL safe to leave on the site?
Section titled “Is the cron URL safe to leave on the site?”It runs one batch and nothing else, and only when the request carries the random key generated on your site. A wrong key gets a 403. You can replace the key from Settings > Running the worker at any time.
I purged the cache and every page went cold again.
Section titled “I purged the cache and every page went cold again.”That is what a purge does. With Reset on purge on, the warmer notices a full purge and starts a fresh pass by itself. That pass counts as a first pass, so it is not judged or emailed about. On a shared host with a tight cron, purge inside your quiet window if you can.
Will this traffic show up in my analytics?
Section titled “Will this traffic show up in my analytics?”Not in anything JavaScript-based: the warmer never runs scripts. It does appear in raw server logs and server-side analytics. With Identify the warmer on, every request carries an X-Brainrune-Cache-Warmer header and DNT: 1, so you can filter it out.
Can I use it with Cloudflare HTML caching?
Section titled “Can I use it with Cloudflare HTML caching?”Yes, and the plugin reads cf-cache-status. If you also run LiteSpeed, keep one purge strategy rather than two.
Does it warm the cart or checkout?
Section titled “Does it warm the cart or checkout?”No. Cart, checkout and account are read from WooCommerce, in every language, and never warmed. A cached cart would show one visitor another visitor’s basket.
Is there a Pro version?
Section titled “Is there a Pro version?”No. Every feature is in the free plugin on WordPress.org, with no URL limit and no locked screens.
Where do I get help?
Section titled “Where do I get help?”On the plugin’s support forum on WordPress.org.