How do i clean up my urls/permalinks?

I use %post_id%/%postname%. My pages come up as /pagename, my single posts as /101/postname (101 is of course an example ID).

Unfortunatly it gives me the same problem, “Web page unavailable”. As soon as i switch it back to default it shows all my pages again, but with the sloppy urls.

Im pulling my hair out here trying to get the urls looking decent, any help would be great.

As a note: when i set the permalinks setting to anything other then default all pages BUT the home stop working, including individual blog posts.

I was just going to start a new thread with a permalink problem I’m having too, but then I saw this thread.

Here’s what’s happening with mine:
I’ll write a blog post, the permalink posts correctly on the front end and shows the same in my admin dashboard. But, then I discover in my database that the permalink structure actually ends up like this example, which is the ‘default setting’:
?p=123

But I have it set to publish as this example, which is the ‘day and name’ setting:
/2010/03/05/sample-post/

After I publish a post I have to go into my database and change the permalinks manually in the line for ‘guide’. The blog post titles are okay, but not the permalinks. Checking in my admin dashboard, I ‘save’ it again with the correct permalink structure, which doesn’t resolve the problem! My existing posts are all okay, but I have to manually fix it with each new post I publish, plus I noticed that all my draft posts also have the incorrect permalink structure.

If anyone could shed some light on why the permalinks cant be changed itd be a great help, thanks.

Just wanted to add that my challenge with this came about after upgrading to 2.9.1, and as I mentioned above, re-saving the desired permalink setting in the admin dashboard doesn’t resolve the issue.

Perhaps this might shed some light on the issue. Could this be our issue?
https://www.ads-software.com/extend/ideas/topic/permalinks-and-rewrite-of-htaccess
Here’s a quote from that thread,

When one chooses another permalink other than the default, the .htaccess is modified to reflect the change. It replaces any previous modification. My server is set up with php4 something, and I have to put a line in the .htaccess so that it uses the php5 engine to achieve php5 functionality.

When one chooses another permalink other than the default, the .htaccess is modified to reflect the change. It replaces any previous modification. My server is set up with php4 something, and I have to put a line in the .htaccess so that it uses the php5 engine to achieve php5 functionality.

If custom rules are placed before the WordPress rules, they *should* be ignored.

If rules are nested inside the WordPress rules they will get wiped every time changes are made, so place custom rules before the WordPress ones and it should avoid the issue all together (i’ve kept custom rules in the WordPress htaccess many times and not had this problem when changing permalinks).

t31os,
Thank you for your reply. Could you provide what the htaccess codes should be in order to have the preference for my permalinks to over-ride the default?

My blog has been established with the /2010/03/05/sample-post/ ‘day and name’ permalink setting. So, what would the code be for the htaccess file, placed prior to the WordPress rules? Thanks.

I’m not sure i understand your problem, so you may need to clarify, i was simply replying to the quoted piece of text.

However, i’m going to reply to something you said previously.. (as this could be important in understanding the issue)

But, then I discover in my database that the permalink structure actually ends up like this example, which is the ‘default setting’:
?p=123

When you say it ends up in the old format, where are you actually looking at in the DB?..

If you’re referring to post_guid in the posts table, that’s normal behaviour and the guid will show a PHP query string style URL, eg. https://example.com/?p=1 … it’s suppose to …

In the database, I’m referring to looking at each individual blog post. All the blog posts that have been published for some time show the correct permalink, from the front end, in search results, and in the database. They all match – they’re in the same permalink form. But the new blog posts that are just published, as well as the drafts show up as the default permalink.

The upgrade to 2.9.1 from 2.7.1 was done for me by my host because my blog got hacked. After getting the blog upgraded it took quite a bit of time to get things cleaned up, including the permalinks, which were goofed up on many of the posts. Now, after the upgrade the permalinks publish as the default structure on newly published posts, as well as the draft posts.

You could try replacing the wp-includes and wp-admin folders from a fresh zip of WordPress (matching version of course), and see if that helps to clear up any problems..

If you would like me to explain further, please simply say so, i’d rather explain in more detail then have you jumping in head first not quite sure of what to do.

If the host performed an upgrade, i have no idea what procedure they followed, but i would be inclined to try getting a fresh copy of some core files to make sure they weren’t missed in the upgrade, namingly those that recide in the wp-includes and wp-admin folders.

There *should* not be any risk to your data since content is in the database and plugins/themes sit in the wp-content folder ..

Of course make a backup beforehand, you can never be too careful… ??

Im still stuck and i dont think Inspired2write and i share the same issue.

My .htaccess file seems fine (im doing this in wamp), the problem seems to be that when the permalinks are changed any page other then my homepage is not found.

Any help related to why this might be would be greatly appreciated.

If all links don’t work when using permalinks (minus home page, it’s not a permalink so it would work) then that’s most likely an indication that permalinks aren’t working, as appose to working partially..

In such a case you may need to enable followsymlinks (Follow Symbolic Links).. You may need to uncomment it in the httpd.conf for your wamp install … (it’s disabled by default on mine) then restart apache (just shutdown and restart the wamp server, easier)…

If that’s enabled already, try adding the option to your htaccess..

Options +FollowSymLinks

.. i’ve always needed it for local installs to work with permalinks .. (but then i use a different WAMP app then most people – it’s just the one i’m use to).

Im familiar with .htaccess, but ive never dealt with httpd.conf.

Could you maybe walk me through the steps you do to configure this?

Thank you.

I am having the same problem that you are, I think dv-design. I changed my permalink structue, and am now getting an error, file not found for my About and Contact pages. Under the WPSettings tab, it said to create an .htaccess file, with some generated code it gave. I trie to do that, but it didn’t solve the broken link issue. I am totally clueless as to what to do, and just posted my problem in another question in this forum, too.