Why does Report state browser caching not set when waterfall clearly shows it is?

I run a test which gives an F for browser caching and a long list of items with no expiry header.

But the waterfall clearly shows that on second load those files aren’t’ being redownloaded, and I know expiry headers are being applied in htaccess.

This happens on a number of sites - here’s an example

Any idea what’s up with this?

Paul

Because you’re not caching them properly. Gtmetrix returns the same.
https://gtmetrix.com/reports/www.cochranemusic.ca/lbLMpc38

And yet I’m using the exact htaccess caching code provided by GTMetrix themselves. And the waterfalls from webpagetest clearly shows that the objects ARE cached as they are not redownloading on second page load. Further supported by the fact that the repeat page load is twice as fast as initial page load.

I didn’t say that you weren’t caching things, I said that you’re not doing it properly.

For reference, here’s what I use and it checks out fine.

[code]# BEGIN W3TC Browser Cache

AddType text/css .css
AddType application/javascript .js
AddType application/x-javascript .js
AddType text/html .html .htm
AddType text/richtext .rtf .rtx
AddType image/svg+xml .svg .svgz
AddType text/plain .txt
AddType text/xsd .xsd
AddType text/xsl .xsl
AddType text/xml .xml
AddType video/asf .asf .asx .wax .wmv .wmx
AddType video/avi .avi
AddType image/bmp .bmp
AddType application/java .class
AddType video/divx .divx
AddType application/msword .doc .docx
AddType application/x-msdownload .exe
AddType image/gif .gif
AddType application/x-gzip .gz .gzip
AddType image/x-icon .ico
AddType image/jpeg .jpg .jpeg .jpe
AddType application/vnd.ms-access .mdb
AddType audio/midi .mid .midi
AddType video/quicktime .mov .qt
AddType audio/mpeg .mp3 .m4a
AddType video/mp4 .mp4 .m4v
AddType video/mpeg .mpeg .mpg .mpe
AddType application/vnd.ms-project .mpp
AddType application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.database .odb
AddType application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.chart .odc
AddType application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.formula .odf
AddType application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.graphics .odg
AddType application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.presentation .odp
AddType application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.spreadsheet .ods
AddType application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.text .odt
AddType audio/ogg .ogg
AddType application/pdf .pdf
AddType image/png .png
AddType application/vnd.ms-powerpoint .pot .pps .ppt .pptx
AddType audio/x-realaudio .ra .ram
AddType application/x-shockwave-flash .swf
AddType application/x-tar .tar
AddType image/tiff .tif .tiff
AddType audio/wav .wav
AddType audio/wma .wma
AddType application/vnd.ms-write .wri
AddType application/vnd.ms-excel .xla .xls .xlsx .xlt .xlw
AddType application/zip .zip

END W3TC Browser Cache

START E-Tag

Header unset ETag FileETag None # END E-Tag

START Deny attempts to view the Htaccess file.

<Files .htaccess>
Order allow,deny
Deny from all

END Deny attempts to view the Htaccess file.

Start Deny attempts to view the config file.

<Files includes/config.php>
Order allow,deny
Deny from all

End Deny attempts to view the config file.

START Mime-Type

AddType text/css .css AddType text/richtext .rtf .rtx AddType image/svg+xml .svg .svgz AddType text/plain .txt AddType text/xsd .xsd AddType text/xsl .xsl AddType video/asf .asf .asx .wax .wmv .wmx AddType video/avi .avi AddType image/bmp .bmp AddType application/java .class AddType video/divx .divx AddType application/msword .doc .docx AddType application/x-msdownload .exe AddType image/gif .gif AddType application/x-gzip .gz .gzip AddType image/x-icon .ico AddType image/jpeg .jpg .jpeg .jpe AddType application/vnd.ms-access .mdb AddType audio/midi .mid .midi AddType video/quicktime .mov .qt AddType audio/mpeg .mp3 .m4a AddType video/mp4 .mp4 .m4v AddType video/mpeg .mpeg .mpg .mpe AddType application/vnd.ms-project .mpp AddType application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.database .odb AddType application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.chart .odc AddType application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.formula .odf AddType application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.graphics .odg AddType application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.presentation .odp AddType application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.spreadsheet .ods AddType application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.text .odt AddType audio/ogg .ogg AddType application/pdf .pdf AddType image/png .png AddType application/vnd.ms-powerpoint .pot .pps .ppt .pptx AddType audio/x-realaudio .ra .ram AddType application/x-shockwave-flash .swf AddType application/x-tar .tar AddType image/tiff .tif .tiff AddType audio/wav .wav AddType audio/wma .wma AddType application/vnd.ms-write .wri AddType application/vnd.ms-excel .xla .xls .xlsx .xlt .xlw AddType application/zip .zip # END Mime-Type

START Expires Headers

ExpiresActive On ExpiresByType text/css A2628000 ExpiresByType text/richtext A3600 ExpiresByType image/svg+xml A3600 ExpiresByType text/plain A3600 ExpiresByType text/xsd A3600 ExpiresByType text/xsl A3600 ExpiresByType video/asf A2628000 ExpiresByType video/avi A2628000 ExpiresByType image/bmp A2628000 ExpiresByType application/java A2628000 ExpiresByType video/divx A2628000 ExpiresByType application/msword A2628000 ExpiresByType application/x-msdownload A2628000 ExpiresByType image/gif A2628000 ExpiresByType application/x-gzip A2628000 ExpiresByType image/x-icon A2628000 ExpiresByType image/jpeg A2628000 ExpiresByType application/vnd.ms-access A2628000 ExpiresByType audio/midi A2628000 ExpiresByType video/quicktime A2628000 ExpiresByType audio/mpeg A2628000 ExpiresByType video/mp4 A2628000 ExpiresByType video/mpeg A2628000 ExpiresByType application/javascript A2628000 ExpiresByType application/x-javascript A2628000 ExpiresByType application/vnd.ms-project A2628000 ExpiresByType application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.database A2628000 ExpiresByType application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.chart A2628000 ExpiresByType application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.formula A2628000 ExpiresByType application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.graphics A2628000 ExpiresByType application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.presentation A2628000 ExpiresByType application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.spreadsheet A2628000 ExpiresByType application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.text A2628000 ExpiresByType audio/ogg A2628000 ExpiresByType application/pdf A2628000 ExpiresByType image/png A2628000 ExpiresByType application/vnd.ms-powerpoint A2628000 ExpiresByType audio/x-realaudio A2628000 ExpiresByType application/x-shockwave-flash A2628000 ExpiresByType application/x-tar A2628000 ExpiresByType image/tiff A2628000 ExpiresByType audio/wav A2628000 ExpiresByType audio/wma A2628000 ExpiresByType application/vnd.ms-write A2628000 ExpiresByType application/vnd.ms-excel A2628000 ExpiresByType application/zip A2628000 # END Expires Headers[/code]

Browsers will use a heuristic to cache resources for a period if not explicitly specified. Your static resources don’t have caching headers so the htaccess rules aren’t working: WebPageTest Test - WebPageTest Details

The server is responding as nginx which doesn’t use htaccess (that’s for Apache).

Oh ok, he’s using nginx. I don’t know much about it but this article should help.

If not, he should follow these results.