404 Error Page – Permalinks Fix Not Working

UPDATE: Fix only lasts 10-15 minutes then 404 (Page Not Found) error returns.

Please help. Thank you.

Subscribing. Have seen this issue myself but only very rarely. Re-saving permalinks fixes it for me as well, but never found an answer to why it happens in the first place. Good luck! And I hope someone else has an answer.

I’ve been having the exact same issue over the last few weeks…I’m thinking it has something to do with this latest version of WordPress.

I’ve scoured the web to find help to resolve my issue, but
for the life of me cannot get anything to work.

The permalink that I have always used is “Custom structure” (/%category%/%postname%/)…here are some things that I’ve tried:

1 . Gone into my permalinks, clicked “save settings”, and that method provides a temporary fix, maybe for an hour or two, then the 404 errors return on all secondary pages. I’ve also set my permalinks to a different option, such as “Default”, but still get 404 errors shortly after.

2. Completely deleted my htaccess.php file, then went back and saved permalink settings…less than an hour later, 404 errors returned.

3. Commented out this line of code in my function.php file, also completely removed it altogether:

“$wp_rewrite->flush_rules();”. That didn’t do anything. I’ve tried
using both “//” and “#” before it and tested…still get 404 errors.

4. De-activated all of my plugins to see it one of them was the culprit, but after a short time, my 404 errors resumed while none of the plugins were active.

Like I said, this issue just start a few weeks ago. I use Securi
Security and had them scan my site for any malware, etc…and the site
is clean.

Can someone PLEASE help me with this? Would bigtime appreciate it!

Sorry… that’s so frustrating!

Try this link and read down thru the comments as well. There are several ways people have noted of fixing if the article steps do not. One of them is to contact the host.

https://www.wpbeginner.com/wp-tutorials/how-to-fix-wordpress-posts-returning-404-error/

Hi, and thanks…yeah I’ve seen that page and looked at my .htaccess file in Dreamweaver.

I’m a bit confused – it says to login to your server using FTP, and modify the .htaccess file.

Modify it with what???

The code that your linked post suggests is already in the .htaccess file, so I’m not sure why they list that as an option. I’ve even tried completely deleting the .htaccess file and re-saving the permalinks, as someone suggested on a forum post, but I’m STILL having this 404 problem.

I’ve also contacted the host (GoDaddy) and their suggestions were basic, such as re-saving the Permalinks structure. I’ve been going around in circles and pretty much to a point where I’ve run out of options.

Does ANYONE know of any other way to fix this besides the ways I’ve listed?

Thanks

https://imperativeideas.com/fix-godaddy-permalinks-wordpress/

thank you Janet, I really appreciate you helping me!

I’ve added that snippet of code that site recommended…fingers again crossed that it works, will post the outcome today!

I added the recommended code to the top of my .htaccess file, as instructed in that webpage you recommended. After awhile, I started getting the 404 errors again.

My conclusion – something is re-writing my .htaccess file. When I start seeing these 404 errors return, the code within that file changes to this:

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} (google|yahoo|msn|aol|bing) [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} (google|yahoo|msn|aol|bing)
RewriteRule ^([^/]*)/$ /starting.php?p=$1 [L]
</IfModule>

Contact godaddy live support. I get better results going that route than calling or emailing. Also, if unsatisfied with the response, try again. Each time you’ll get someone different and just like here — some are more helpful and knowledgeable than others.

yeah I’ve been on the phone with them…the next thing I do is to change the theme to see if that’s tripping the .htaccess.

I’ll keep this post updated, thanks

I am thinking that what’s causing the .htaccess file is combination of two things:

1. Site is being compromised. I use Securi to monitor my sites and they are reporting security warnings on the server side:

“File possibly compromised: ./starting.php (php.spam-seo.wordpress-infector.001). Manual review recommended.”

2. The WordPress theme – according to the theme’s creator, the theme is from 2011 and its not getting enough sales for him to invest a whole week or more updating it, and he will likely not be doing such an update.

Any solution on this? I am struggling with the exact same problem ?? Thanks for letting me know!

It wound up being malware that was causing me all of the issues…

Hi, I’m having the same issues! How did you manage to remove the malware to fix this?

Moving files from FTP to localhost usually cause this problem to happen.

Fix 404 Page Not Found in all Pages in WordPress

To fix this problem, simply add the following block of code into your .htaccess file. If you do not have an .htaccess file, create it.

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /project_name/
RewriteRule ^index\.php$ - [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /project_name/index.php [L]
</IfModule>

Let me know if it worked for you.