Troubleshooting & FAQ

Views Not Counting

Symptom: Views stay at 0 or don’t increase.

Solutions:

1. Check your counting mode. If you use page caching, switch from PHP to JavaScript or REST API mode
2. Check exclusions. If you’re logged in as admin with “Exclude all logged-in users” enabled, your visits won’t count
3. Check the count interval. If set to 30 minutes, revisiting within that window won’t add a count
4. Try a logged-out or incognito browser. This helps rule out logged-in user exclusions, role exclusions, and count interval cookies
5. Check for JavaScript errors (browser console) if using JS or REST mode

Counts Seem Wrong

Higher than expected: Check whether bot exclusion is enabled. View Counter uses user-agent based bot detection, but some crawlers may not identify themselves clearly.

Lower than expected: Likely a caching issue — switch to JS or REST counting mode.

Different from Google Analytics: View Counter counts page loads, not sessions. One user loading a page 3 times = 3 views. GA may count this differently.

Cache Compatibility

View Counter WP is designed to work with common caching setups, including:

• WP Super Cache, W3 Total Cache, WP Rocket
• LiteSpeed Cache, Cloudflare APO
• Redis/Memcached object caching
• Varnish, Nginx FastCGI cache

For all caching setups, use JavaScript or REST API counting mode.

Common Questions

Does it work with multisite? Yes — network activate or activate per site. Each site tracks independently.

Does it slow down my site? No. PHP mode adds one lightweight database write. JS/REST modes fire an async request after page load that doesn’t block rendering.

Is it GDPR compliant? View Counter is designed for privacy-friendly WordPress sites. View data is stored locally in your WordPress database, no third-party analytics scripts are added, and the optional count-interval cookie contains no identifying information. Paid license validation may contact the configured license server. Whether you need consent notices or privacy-policy updates depends on your site configuration and jurisdiction.

Can I reset view counts? Yes — edit any post, find the View Counter meta box, and set the count to 0. Or use the REST API: POST /posts/{id}/adjust with count=0.

Where is data stored? All-time view counts are stored in wp_postmeta using the _vc_view_count key. Daily totals are stored in wp_vc_daily_views, and per-post daily history is stored in wp_vc_daily_post_views.

Does View Counter use cookies? Only if the count interval is greater than 0 minutes. In that case, View Counter sets a small cookie to avoid counting the same visitor repeatedly within the interval. If the interval is set to 0, no count-interval cookie is used.

Can I import counts from another plugin? Yes. View Counter includes import tools for WP-PostViews, Post Views Counter, Statify, and Page Views Count. Always run a Dry Run first and keep the old plugin installed but deactivated until you have verified the imported counts.