Warning: bug in W3 Total Cache impacts Autoptimize

Update 4th Feb: the HTML minify bug was fixed in W3TC v. 0.9.7.2, released a couple of days ago.
Update 19th Feb: I’m still seeing issues caused by W3TC, seems like not all is fixed fully yet.


Quick heads-up for users that have both W3 Total Cache and Autoptimize installed; the latest W3TC update (version 0.9.7.1) introduces a nasty bug in the HTML minifier which also impacts Autoptimize as that uses the same minifier class (Minify_HTML, part of Mr. Clay’s Minify). When W3TC is running the Minify_HTML class is loaded by and from W3TC, meaning AO’s autoload does not have to load the Minify_HTML from AO proper (which does not have that problem).
The bug sees some characters, esp. quotes disappear from the HTML leading to all sorts of .. weirdness from Pinterest icons not showing over mis-aligned titles in RevSlider to broken custom share buttons and more.
If you’re impacted by the bug, you can do one of the following;

  • disable HTML optimization in Autoptimize (and W3TC)
  • OR temporarily disable W3TC (or switch to another page cache plugins)
  • OR download and install the previous version of W3TC (0.9.7)

Fingers crossed they’ll release an update soon!