Serious Caching Probem Affecting Mobile Users

@vintageman I think we already know the root cause of the issue here. You either need to purge cache more frequently and efficiently than you do right now Or remove Cloudflare altogether.

Here is more on that:
https://developers.cloudflare.com/cache/how-to/purge-cache
And this: https://developers.cloudflare.com/cache/about/default-cache-behavior

See if you can try and fix the issue else you might consider removing it.
Here is the one I recommend: https://optimole.com/

Let me know if that works ??

I dealt with a similar problem recently on a client site using Cloudflare, WP Rocket, and a plugin that loads a mobile-specific theme.

In my client’s case, the problem was not at Cloudflare. Indeed, the problem could not have been at Cloudflare… since Cloudflare doesn’t cache HTML by default (unless you’ve specifically configured it to do so with “Page Rules”)… and the client’s desktop and mobile sites used different themes and were very different (not the typical “responsive” design wherein the same HTML is served with different styles).

While Cloudflare could be the cause in @vintageman’s case, it may be worth looking at other possible causes as well, especially as Cloudflare folks seem “confused” by this ??

Here’s what I suspect could be going on:

The “Newspaper” theme loads a special mobile theme on mobile devices, complete with its own mobile-only template files. So the actual HTML served to desktop devices is totally different from what’s served to mobile devices. This is explained by the theme’s developer here: https://tagdiv.com/mobile-theme-automatic-optimization-for-mobile-newspaper-theme/

Just as with my client’s case where a plugin loaded a different mobile-only theme, this makes caching tricky: the caching plugin needs to know what this “mobile-only” theme is doing so it can generate separate cache files for desktop and mobile devices.

In the above link, the theme’s author specifically mentions that “the Mobile Theme works fine with WP Super Cache plugin”, and provides specific configuration instructions here:

https://forum.tagdiv.com/cache-plugin-install-and-configure/

Other caching plugins may require specific configurations to prevent the sort of problem you’re experiencing. WP Rocket’s documentation linked below provides some hints on this. In my client’s case, the “Separate cache files for mobile device” feature solved the problem:

https://docs.wp-rocket.me/article/708-mobile-caching

If the above links don’t solve your problem, I’ll advise you to contact both the WP Rocket plugin and the Newspaper theme developers for help. As these are both commercial products, there’s not much more we can do to help you here.

Good luck!

@vintageman On a closer look I feel @gappiah is right here. I did a bit of a digging into this and found some cache plugins indeed trying to look for mobile versions to create separate cache data.

Here is W3 Total cache explaining the same with their plugin: https://www.webnots.com/fix-mobile-responsiveness-issue-with-w3-total-cache-plugin/

You would need to tweak WP-Rocket a bit and check if the issue persists. Deactivate and try again. Removing cloudflare could be your last resort as I still feel they are too heavy on the caching side.

Kudos to @gappiah for taking this in the right direction.

Have a good day ??

thank you everyone

I have unclicked the seperate cach files for mobile devices. When i did this the mobile version is now showing on my mobile device. However, when i go to crome and to microsoft edge, the mobile version is showing instead of the desktop version.

I have used wp rocket because it gets my site to load on average in around 1.2 seconds, where as the other plugin you mentioned makes the site slower.

@vintageman I checked your site on desktop and its loading fine for me. Try clearing browser cache and cookies. See if that helps.

>>I have used wp rocket because it gets my site to load on average in around 1.2 seconds, where as the other plugin you mentioned makes the site slower<<

I would never recommend W3 Total cache over Wp-rocket.
W3 is known for breaking sites and slowing them down.

Cloudflare never worked well for me. Hence the bias in my suggestion. I hope they have improved now. Optimole worked best for me as an Image CDN. Made the site a lot faster.

Glad that it was sorted ??

hi, i tried it but then it worked for a couple of seconds and then went back to the old way it looked. i have tried everything. i have had the newspaper theme people try and sort it and they have been on it for a few weeks and they have tried everything. ii think i need to hire someone to fix this for me

@vintageman It is working fine for me!

Use this: https://www.lambdatest.com/ to test your website across several devices and browsers.

Do you found a fix for this issue?

I have the same issue on my website using newspaper theme with wp rocket and mobile theme. Sometimes the mobile version is shown on desktop.