How to fix WordPress permalinks not working
If you forget to set up the WordPress permalink structure for your pages when you set up WordPress, you may run into this problem, where it breaks your page structure and now all your pages have disappeared or are displaying an error.
The first thing to do is contact your hosting company and get them to fix the error. If they can’t do this for you then you will have to do it manually.
This is advanced WordPress; so try to avoid this by setting up your permalink structure as soon as you have installed WordPress and before adding any pages or content to your website!
To fix the WordPress permalinks problem manually – follow the process below.
- Check your server (via FTP) to see if there is a .htaccess file
- If there is then you need to add the code (from your permalinks page) to the .htaccess file
- if you don’t have a .htaccess file then you need to create one in Notepad or Text Editor
- Paste the code (from your permalinks page) into a blank text editor l
- Save the file as .htaccess (make sure it does not have the .txt file extension)
- Drag this file onto the server into the root directory
- Refresh WordPress
- Check all pages are now working
See below for the code that needs to be in your htaccess file.
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /your-name/
RewriteRule ^index.php$ – [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . / your-name/index.php [L]
</IfModule>
Note: Your .htaccess file must be writable for Page Permalinks to work. Otherwise, you must update your .htaccess file every time you create a Page.
To make your .htaccess file writeable
- Go to the server via FileZilla – a Free FTP program
- Add your login details to the top tab
- Open the root folder – where all your WordPress files are – you should see wp-content and wp-include folders in the root directory
- Right click on the .htaccess file
- Set the permissions to 777
If you are still having issues; then you need to contact your hosting for them to fix it!
Or contact Let’s Build a Website for WordPress support
By Jodi Allbon
Original content 2013
