Counter decreases the number of views

Hi Guile,

Thank you for your patience and for the detailed reports — I can see this is an issue you’ve been dealing with across multiple periods over several years, and I understand how frustrating that is. Let me walk through this carefully.

The pattern you’re describing — view counts that are accurate in the evening but drastically reduced by the next morning, happening roughly every 24 hours — strongly points to a caching or scheduled process interfering with how counts are stored or displayed.

Why PHP Mode + caching is the most likely cause:

You’re currently using PHP Mode, which records views server-side during page generation. When a page caching layer is active (whether from a plugin, server configuration, or CDN), cached pages are served without executing PHP. That means view counts from cached pages are never recorded. More importantly, if a cache purge or rebuild runs on a schedule — for example, every 24 hours via a cron job or host-level process — the database can end up with stale or overwritten view data that appears to “reset” the counts.

The fact that Google Analytics shows normal traffic while PVC counts drop confirms the views are happening — they just aren’t being captured consistently by the plugin in its current configuration.

What I’d like you to check:

1. Caching setup: Does your site use any page caching or CDN? This includes:
– Server-level caching (LiteSpeed, Nginx FastCGI, Varnish, etc.)
– A caching plugin (WP Rocket, Autoptimize, LiteSpeed Cache, Super Page Cache for Cloudflare, W3 Total Cache, etc.)
– Cloudflare or another CDN
– Any host-provided caching (if you’re on managed WordPress hosting)

2. Scheduled processes: Is there any plugin or server-level task that runs approximately every 24 hours? This could be a database optimization plugin, a cron-based cleanup, a migration/sync tool, or something your host runs automatically.

3. Object cache: Does your site use Redis, Memcached, or another object caching system?

Recommended next step:

Regardless of the caching answers above, I’d strongly recommend switching from PHP Mode to JavaScript Mode or REST API Mode. These modes record views from the visitor’s browser after the page loads, which means they work correctly even when pages are served from cache. Here’s how:

– Go to Post Views > Counting and change the counter mode from PHP to JavaScript or REST API.
– Clear all caches on your site (page cache, CDN cache, any object cache).
– Monitor a few high-traffic posts over the next 24–48 hours to see if counts remain stable.

A few more questions that would help me investigate further:

– Which version of Post Views Counter are you currently running?
– Which version of WordPress are you on?
– Which hosting provider are you using, and do you know if they run any automatic caching or optimization processes?
– When the counts drop, does the decrease affect only the displayed numbers (on the front end and in the admin column), or do the actual stored values in the database also change? (If you check the post’s view count directly in the database, does it match what the admin shows?)
– Does the drop affect all post types, or only posts? Does it affect older posts as well, or only recent ones?

I know this has been a long-running issue for you and I want to get to the bottom of it. The switch to JavaScript or REST API mode is the most impactful step, and the answers to the questions above will help us understand what’s triggering the periodic drops.

Best regards