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check_circleWP Rocket•codePHPhourglass_bottomTimeoutrocketwp rocketwarningcachesettingsserver_configuration•labelCommon•warningModerate

Cache cleanup exceeded max execution time

WP Rocket tries to delete the entire cache folder in a single request. When the folder contains millions of files the file system operations take longer than the PHP and FastCGI timeout limits.

The server aborts the request after about 120 seconds. The admin UI shows a 502 or 504 error and the cache remains partially cleared.

Symptoms

[dashicons-warning]
502 Bad Gateway after 120 seconds
You see a 502 error when saving a menu, widget or clicking Clear Cache.
[dashicons-admin-generic]
Admin UI hangs
The Saving spinner never disappears and the page stops responding.
[dashicons-admin-site]
Intermittent site downtime
Front‑end becomes unreachable for a few seconds while cleanup runs.
[dashicons-database]
Rapid cache folder growth
The wp-content/cache/wp-rocket folder expands to many gigabytes before the timeout occurs.

Common Causes

Huge on‑disk cache
More than 9 GB and 160 k files require extensive delete operations.
PHP max_execution_time limit
The script runs in one request and exceeds the PHP and FastCGI timeout.
Inefficient file system loop
rocket_rrmdir() calls unlink() for each file, which is slow on shared hosting.
Server resource constraints
Low CPU, RAM or throttled I/O extend the cleanup duration beyond limits.
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