[wp-super-cache] “Mod Rewrite rules cannot be updated!”

Is it asking you to update the .htaccess in the root of your wordpress install?

Yes, sorry, I guess that wasn’t clear. It is asking me to update the one at the root of the install, and that’s what I was referring to as having BEGIN and END and being otherwise correct. My comment about the “wp-content/cache/.htaccess” was meant to show that it’s not a global problem with .htaccess, just the one at the root.

Thanks. I wanted to be sure ??

First thought: Make SURE it’s labled right, with the BEGIN WordPress etc.

# BEGIN WPSuperCache
(WP Super Cache Stuff)
# END WPSuperCache

# BEGIN WordPress
(WordPress stuff)
# END WordPress

Second thought: Do you have other Begins and Ends in there for other htaccess hacks?

(last third surprise thought: conflicting plug-ins that play with htaccess?)

Here’s my .htaccess from the root of the wp installation directory. I think it’s default. (I have a second wp installation — no supercache — and the .htaccess files are identical.)

# BEGIN WordPress
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]
# END WordPress

Still, as I say, the supercache setup page complains that it can’t update and asks about the BEGIN and END.

One point is that my blog homepage is different from the directory it’s in. (The Blog address is explicitly set in the General Settings page.) However, I would be surprised if supercache can’t deal with this.

My blog is in /public_html/blog and is accessed at https://ipstenu.org to no ill effect with WPSC

That said, the .htaccess file? Is in /public_html/

Is that similar to what you’ve got?

My .htaccess file is in the wordpress root directory, i.e. /iayork.com/Blog. I tried moving it out to the base (iayork.com) and it still doesn’t work; supercache complains no matter what.

I’ve also tried copying and pasting the .htaccess file that’s described in the readme file and that causes a Server error no matter what I try or where I put the .htaccess file.

https://www.iayork.com/Blog/ redirects me to https://www.iayork.com/MysteryRays/blogroll/

Which makes me think something else is goobered in your .htaccess (which should be in public_html/Blog based on your page source)

So you have your blog set up to ‘act’ like it’s in MysterRays while residing in Blog…

Is MysteryRays a real folder with an index.php and .htaccess file? If so, I think that’s where you need to put the wp super cache file.

Hmm, good thought. There is a MysteryRays directory with a default-version .htaccess. I had forgotten that it even existed. But I just tried setting those permissions to 777, and no good — activating supercache still gives me the “Mod Rewrite rules cannot be updated!” error.

According to the page source, caching is apparently working even without the modified .htaccess.

It may be a file ownership problem. I never like having files as 777 so I just manually put in the info and it works.

I’ve tried manually adding in the .htaccess that’s shown in the readme (minus the backticks and so on, of course), and I get a server error.

At this point, once again, I’m giving up. (I try about once a year to get supercache running, and it’s failed each time.) Clearly there’s some incompatibility between supercache and my setup, but my setup is really a very simple and standard one. Fortunately, it’s not as though I’m very popular …

I was going in circles with this issue same as you (.htaccess had begin and end, just like it was supposed to) and finally realized it was a really ridiculous error.

At some point after downloading/editing/uploading the file, “.htaccess” lost the dot. e.g. I was looking at “htaccess” on the server, thinking it was fine.

Renamed to add the dot in front ==> victory.

Figured this might help some confused person coming across this is the future.