Really Strange Problem!

  • This is the weirdest thing, and it’s stumped ALL my tech-savvy friends… So I’m hoping someone here will know what’s going on:

    A few days ago, people started telling me that certain links on my blog were giving them 404 errors. However when I went to the pages, I could see the posts with no problem.

    And many of the people are able to see the page again a day later. (Also, different people are reporting the error on different pages.)

    Here’s just one of the pages that some people can’t see: https://chocolatecoveredkatie.com/2011/10/24/its-a-chocolate-pumpkin-pizookie/

    Any help would be appreciated SO much!

Viewing 9 replies - 1 through 9 (of 9 total)

  • Hi Katie, it’s Kathryn from Twitter! I’m a moderator over here.

    That is a really strange problem indeed. I did a bit of research and found this thread:

    https://www.ads-software.com/support/topic/wordpress-30-intermittent-404-errors-from-admin-panel?replies=16

    You don’t look to be hosted with Dreamhost (are you?) but the other thing that’s mentioned in that thread is a plug-in called WP-Stats-Dashboard. Do you happen to be using it? If so, try turning it off.

    You can also try talking to your host and having them check your account, and error logs. If your site is getting really popular with a lot of traffic, they may be implementing some measures on the server end that are negatively affecting your WordPress install (as in the Dreamhost example in the thread above) and it may be time to look at upgrading your hosting package somehow.

    Good luck!

    It also certainly couldn’t hurt to reset your permalinks, I suppose. Go into Settings > Permalinks – don’t change anything and hit the Save button.

    Thread Starter Chocolate-Covered Katie

    (@chocolate-covered-katie)

    Oh wow, too funny that we know each other!! ?? ??

    Kathryn, I can’t even tell you how much it means that you’re taking the time to help me. It’s so frustrating, and my host (Servint) says they have no clue what’s wrong. (I’ve actually been upgraded THREE times in the last two months, because my blog’s outgrown the server package.)

    In any case, I just deactivated that stats plugin and reset the permalinks. Now I’m just waiting on a reply, from a few of the people who said the post wouldn’t load for them, to see if they can load the page now.

    It’s a small (WordPress) world. ??

    Sounds very frustrating indeed, dealing with your host.

    Let’s see what happens now that you’ve deactivated that plug-in. Let me know.

    Thread Starter Chocolate-Covered Katie

    (@chocolate-covered-katie)

    Sadly, it didn’t work.

    Unless maybe it takes some time for the changes to go into effect?

    Next thing, I would try turning off all plug-ins temporarily and ask your readers to re-check one of the bad links. If the 404s go away, turn your plug-ins back on one-by-one and ask one of your testers to have a look in after each plug-in has been turned on to see if the page comes back. Cumbersome, I know, but doing this may rule out a plug-in issue altogether – or find a culprit.

    Thread Starter Chocolate-Covered Katie

    (@chocolate-covered-katie)

    *Sigh*

    Still didn’t work! I deactivated them all… and people still were reporting the 404 errors. I’m at a loss as to what to do. I feel like my site is going to be broken forever ??

    Hi Katie,

    Sorry you’re still having trouble, and I only noticed this response now.

    You can also try talking to your host and having them check your account, and error logs.

    Did you try asking your host to check the error logs? Error logs are also often viewable in your own control panels, for example cPanel offers an error log. The error logs show recent 404 and other server errors, and may provide clues about the source of the error.

    Another idea is to temporarily switch to one of the default themes (like Twenty Eleven) to see if the problem persists. If the problem goes away, it means it’s a theme problem, in which case you’ll need to get help directly via Thesis, since it’s a commercial theme. Note that you may have to reset some of your theme settings when you switch back to Thesis, so be sure make a careful note of them. (i.e. custom header, widgets, possible other things. I have never used Thesis so I don’t know what settings may be affected.)

    Other things to try:

    – reinstall WordPress – replace the WP files in the root, as well as wp-includes and wp-admin, with a freshly downloaded copy, assuming you’re running 3.3.1. Do not touch the the wp-content folder, .htaccess and any other files you may have modified. Always make backups of everything first! More info here: https://codex.www.ads-software.com/Updating_WordPress#Step_1:_Replace_WordPress_files
    – do a database repair – best to have someone familiar with phpMyAdmin do this for you as it needs to be done carefully. Be sure to make a backup of your database first.
    – hire a WordPress expert to take a more hands-on look at the issue
    – start over with a completely fresh installation of WordPress and fresh database and import your posts

    Don’t despair – there are always more things to try. Good luck!

    Hi Katie, I see that you’ve opened a couple more threads on this issue that are more recent than this one, so I’m going to go ahead and close this one so there aren’t too many duplicates floating around.

Viewing 9 replies - 1 through 9 (of 9 total)
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