Cannot find/replace complex URLs

Hi there,

Better Search Replace Support Team here, Thanks for reaching out with your query we would be happy to assist

I just tried this on my end and I was able to replicate the issue. Seems like it’s an issue with the “&”. It was due to it being encoded when stored in the database. The “&” was replaced with “\0026”

For example: https://www.domain.com/?utm_source=MYidentifier\u0026utm_medium=b\u0026utm_campaign=r

Once I copied that URL from my database and paste it on the search field of the plugin, it was able to find the URL.

With that in mind, you can try replacing the “&” character with \u0026 and see if that helps. If the issue persists, I recommend checking your WordPress database and see how that URL is stored and encoded.

hey thank you, that doesn’t work. i’m not sure if the “?” character is also a factor? (I don’t think it is, I think the ? works OK)

I am using standard wordpress tables WP_POSTS. I have no idea how to investigate the inate structure of out-of-the-box wordpress.

just to be clear

i replace

&

with

\u0026

or is it replacing with

\0026

this is the exact link https://www.stryd.com/?utm_source=tfk&utm_medium=b&utm_campaign=r

• This reply was modified 1 year ago by the5krunner.
• This reply was modified 1 year ago by the5krunner.

Hi @the5krunner,

Thanks for the response.

hey thank you, that doesn’t work. i’m not sure if the “?” character is also a factor? (I don’t think it is, I think the ? works OK)

>On my end the “?” was not a factor, only the “&”.

But this is on my end only. Your WordPress database may be encoding the characters differently which means that while “?” is not encoded on my end, it may be for yours.

just to be clear i replace “&” with “\u0026”

>Yes.

Here’s what I would input on the search field using your example – https://www.stryd.com/?utm_source=tfk\u0026utm_medium=b\u0026utm_campaign=r

That said, if that’s still not being detected, kindly confirm first if that URL is indeed stored on your “wp_posts” table. It may be residing on a different database table.

If it’s there, I would then recommend checking how that URL is stored exactly. You may use something like phpMyAdmin to check your database.

For assistance regarding accessing your WordPress database, I recommend reaching out to your hosting provider as they may be able to assist you further with this.

OK I managed to solve it

my hosting comapny informed me that i used one of these character sets:

_wp1 – wp_posts – utf8_general_ci
_wp4 – wp_posts – utf8mb4_unicode_520_ci

i then dont think that helped me too much.

but then I tried this which worked:

https://www.stryd.com/?utm_source=tfk&utm_medium=b&

ie the & amp and ; characters (3 bits of info)

i coudl then successfuly replce that with an easier to maange string