Are your WordPress posts returning a 404 error on your website?
This error happens when you can access your WordPress admin area and blog, but when you try to open a post, you will see “404 Not Found.”
In this article, we will show you how to fix WordPress posts returning 404 errors.
What Causes the WordPress Posts Returning 404 Error?
WordPress is a powerful content management system (CMS), but a slight change can sometimes make your WordPress website inaccessible.
In some cases, you may not be able to access your WordPress admin area or the website itself, like with the internal server error or error establishing a database connection.
By contrast, when your WordPress posts are returning 404 errors, you will still be able to get into your admin area and see your WordPress website on the front end. Then, when you click on a blog post, you will see a message saying “404 Not Found”.
Although this error message can be scary, it doesn’t mean you have lost your WordPress posts. Instead, your .htaccess file has probably been deleted, or something went wrong with the rewrite rules on your blog.
That being said, let’s look at how to fix WordPress posts returning 404 errors. You can use the links below to jump straight to different solutions:
Video Tutorial
If you prefer written instructions, then just continue reading.
Method 1: Fix Your Permalink Settings
WordPress posts can return 404 errors because of problems with rewrite rules in your .htaccess file. In most cases, you can fix the problem by updating your permalink settings.
Simply go to Settings » Permalinks in your WordPress admin, and click on the ‘Save Changes’ button.
There is no need to make changes to the permalink settings themselves. This will update your permalink settings and flush the rewrite rules.
In most cases, this solution fixes the WordPress posts 404 error. However, if it does not work for you, then you probably need to update your .htaccess file manually.
Method 2: Update the WordPress .htaccess File
Before you start, make sure to back up your WordPress .htaccess file first. If something goes wrong, you can easily restore the original file.
Now, you will need to connect to your server using an FTP client like FileZilla or the File Manager app in your WordPress hosting dashboard.
Next, you will need to find and edit the .htaccess file, which is located in the same location as folders like /wp-content/ and /wp-includes/.
Simply right-click on the file and select ‘File permissions.’
You can make the file writeable by changing its permissions to 666.
Simply enter ‘666’ into the ‘Numeric value’ box and then click on ‘OK’.
Then, you need to repeat the steps in the first method of our tutorial. Once you have done this, don’t forget to change the permissions back to 660.
You can also edit the file and add code to it.
Once you have opened the .htaccess file with a text editor, simply insert this code:
# BEGIN WordPress
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^index\.php$ - [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]
</IfModule>
# END WordPress
Method 3: Contact Your Hosting Provider
If neither of the solutions above has fixed the WordPress posts returning 404 error, then we recommend contacting your WordPress hosting provider. There may be an error on their end, or they might be able to help you troubleshoot the problem.
Please also see our guide on how to properly ask for WordPress support and get it.
Method 4: Fix WordPress Posts Returning 404 Error on Local Servers
If you are using a local server for testing purposes, then you will need to enable mod_rewrite in the Apache configuration of your MAMP, WAMP, or XAMPP site.
This will allow WordPress to generate clean URLs and prevent the 404 error for posts and pages on your local server.
How you do this will differ by the platform you use. People using XAMPP can open their control panel and click the ‘Config’ button within Actions. Then, select ‘Apache (httpd.conf).’
Next, you will need to find this line #LoadModule rewrite_module modules/mod_rewrite.so and remove the ‘#’ to uncomment it.
This will load the mod_rewrite.
Then, find all instances of AllowOverride None and change them to AllowOverride All.
The ‘All’ value means that all directives can be overridden.
Once done, you can save the httpd.conf file and close it. After that, in the XAMPP control panel, click ‘Stop’ on the Apache module and ‘Start’ again to restart it.
Then, go back to your admin dashboard to see if your permalinks are working.
We hope this article helped you resolve the posts returning 404 errors in WordPress. You may also want to see our guide to the most common WordPress errors and how to fix them, along with our expert picks for the best WordPress plugins to grow your site.
If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.
Syed Balkhi says
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Laxmi Prasanna says
thank you very much. you saved my day. god bless you
chandan says
you save my day
Alessandro Morotti says
Thxs a lot man.
Your save my job!!!
congratulations by your time
Niketa says
Many many Thanks.. I was worried first but your blog fixed my 404…as I was having exactly same issue.
Abhishek Sharma says
Sir i dont know how to thank you.. But today you saved my life.. I was so scared. I just published a post and then when i checked that in my browser it showed 404 error then i check another post and then all . i was surrounded by 404 errors except my homepage was working. Now before posting to wordpress forums i just googled it and found solution on your website.,..
Mannn Thanks for saving my life.
WPBeginner Support says
Hi Abhishek,
We are glad you found this article helpful. Don’t forget to follow us on Facebook for more WordPress tips and tutorials.
Admin
Richard says
Hi !
I doesn’t work for me.
i added ” . ” for prefix category but i fall in a 404 page when i try to access to my subcategory :s
CR says
Awesome! It helped.
Paola says
I LOVE YOU! I didn’t knew how to fix this I’m a complete novice. Thank you thank you! !
Marlena says
I’m so pleased to have found this article first. I’m a complete novice and I fixed my own 404 issue.
YAY!
Thanks so much!
Saud Razzak says
Very informative and useful article for WordPress beginners!
Eri says
Please can you help me for this, because I tryied but i cant fix it :/
Tom C says
Great guide! Totally solved my issue.
Anil says
I have created a subdirectory. And I have two wordpress installed, one in root and the other in subdirectory. Both of them contains posts and pages. I want to access both and it’s happening. But when I am hiding the subdirectory slug from the post URL by modifying the .htaccess file, the sub directory name got hidden as per the requirement but the posts of my main domain is inaccessible and getting 404 error. I want to access the post from both root as well as subdirectory. Please suggest.
Jawad says
Thank you very very much for your help
Farukh Hussain says
Thanks alot for sharing. Your tutorials always helps me.
Karen says
Thank you so much for this!
Grant Turner says
Fixed. My problem was since I’m running on a windows server then I don’t have a .htaccess file. I need to create a web.config file.
Cindy Martin says
This fix DID NOT work for me! I still have a 404 error on my blog page only. I am using Gridalicious and have had nothing but trouble! (Not with Gridalicious but other stuff too).
I removed everything from the to start over. loaded the theme and get the error.
Blog posts are not showing up on the blog page except in the widget and the main page is the 404 error message. Saving permalinks does nothing at all. Host is GoDaddy. HELP! I’m really tired of all this and frustrated.
WPBeginner Support says
Hey Cindy,
This seems like an issue with your WordPress theme. Please follow the step by step instructions in our WordPress troubleshooting guide. It will help you figure out what’s causing the issue.
Admin
Maranna says
Thanks! I moved website from one server to another and had the problem with posts returning 404. Main page and admin were working fine. Re-saving permalinks worked to fix this problem. Seems that this setting is not carried over correctly in all cases.
Aondongu Tivzenda says
The permalinks fix worked perfectly. Thank you for this website. Awesome!
alvin says
My problem is funny. I have a couple of WP websites I am currently running each logged into one browser with different portals and logging user names. After I noticed the 404 error checking the redirect area i see my author names have been mixed up from all the different websites. Can someone please assist
niranjan says
It worked! Thanks!!
Vishwa says
It worked! Thanks!!
Yours is a great website!
Charley Gordon says
Thanks for sharing your knowledge.
Al says
Thanks, worked for me
Mayapur Voice says
This post saved my day today! In an attempt to fix a long standing problem today our host changed the .htaccess file. The issue got resolved but it broke all my links. By the grace of God, I found this post in an instant and it was exactly what I needed. Thanks tons!
marcela bonadio says
exactly what i needed. thanks for sharing your knowledge.
Casey says
Hello, thanks for this article and all the other awesome articles I have found on wpbeginner. I am running into some problems with my front page giving me an “oops! That page can’t be found” error. I am wondering if you have any advice on how to fix it.
I am running:
LAMP with Debian 3.2.84-1 x86_64 (Wheezy) on a VPS, Apache 2.2.22, php5
Wordpress: 4.7.1
Theme: YS Magazine
The original issue occurred when I switched the permalink structure to use “post type” instead of the default. At that point I could no longer view any of my pages and just got a 404 error. So, I did some research and edited my .htaccess file to allow overwrite. This fixed the problem of the 404 errors on all my pages, except on whatever page is set to my home page. To be clear, there was no problem with any of the pages before I changed permalinks. It also does not matter if I set the front page to static or posts. If I change my front page to another page I can then see the page which was set previously as the front page, but the new front page then gives me the error.
I have tried:
disabling all my plugins and enabling them one by one
changing themes
changing the .htaccess file back
changing permalink settings
I have been searching for an answer to this for hours now and seem to have ran into a brick wall. Any help would be super appreciated. Thank you so much.
Bart Dority says
Thank you so much for this post!
I knew my 404 errors had something to do with the permalink structure – and I even tried changing the permalink structure and saving it – and otherwise updating and refreshing it — but it still wasn’t working. But then I read this post which said — instead of changing the permalink style and saving it, — just leave it where it is, and click Save anyway. That worked for me. A huge relief. Thank you!
Angelica says
Thank you so much!! It worked!!
MarcB says
Thank you so much for this help. Really a lifesaver.
Elyes Gherib says
Thank you very much, this did it for me!
Z says
Thanks for the post. I’ve had to deal with other problems after switching hosting providers, but this was a new one.
I did the method provided and my site was back to normal within seconds.
Kristine says
Hello, I am hoping you can help me- I am super nervous about my wp site right now. When I type the address into the search engine it is a completely barebones site that says it is “set up through Wix” that no longer looks like our site we have been operating through wordpress. This just happened out of the blue and I am so nervous about our posts.
WPBeginner Support says
Hi Kristine,
It seems like your WordPress site’s domain is hosted by Wix. If you have login details for a wix account, then you can login and point the domain to your current WordPress hosting provider. If you are unsure, then please try contacting Wix support and your WordPress hosting provider support for more help.
Admin
Jolene says
Thank you! My blog has been down and I couldn’t figure out how to fix. In a last ditch effort before I call customer support…I googled. You saved the day!
Bruno Almond says
Great blog here! Additionally your site rather a lot up very fast! What host are you the usage of? Can I am getting your affiliate link in your host? I desire my web site loaded up as fast as yours lol
WPBeginner Support says
Hi Bruno,
WPBeginner is hosted on a HostGator dedicated server.
Admin
AJ says
great job mate, you did a better job than the tech support at bluehost
Lorene says
No, this worked for the one post that was showing Error 404, but then ALL the others that worked before, now show Error 404. So I had to change it back. Hope most of them work now.
Gabe DeFrates says
Excellent tip for fixing the permalink! I was getting the “File not found” error, and I went right into the WP Control Panel Settings, Saved Changes and she’s working again. You saved the day! Thank you for your time in posting this.
Samnang Thorng says
Thanks I can deal with site now. Great helps
jhonny says
Recently I have changed my site permalinks and now i am getting lots of 404 errors i have redirected them some of them to new url and others to homepage but still my site users were going down and down what to do now help me please should i change them back to old permalinks? or something else to do please tell me
Exxagon says
Thanks a lot for your post.
Since many weeks, I was stucked with a 404 error each time I tried to change my permalinks structure.
I found the solutions in your post :
1. Modify /etc/apache2/apache2.conf, and set “AllowOverride All” everywhere instead of ” AllowOverride None”
2. Empty /var/www/html/.htaccess completely, change it to www-data:www-data & set it temporary to 777.
3. And the main one : “sudo a2enmod rewrite”, and “service apache2 restart”
Thanks again !!
Xavier
Asif says
thanks bro it help me and my server version is working fine now
Suraj says
Thanks a lot… It’s working for me.
Erwin says
Hey, where can I find “/etc/apache2/apache2.conf”??? I don´t even know where to search? Do I need a special Application or something? Sorry, i´ve no idea : I
Abel says
Hi, “/etc/apache2/apache2.conf” is a Ubuntu system folder. If you want to access it, you should have access to your server (like ssh).
Abel says
Thanks a lot!
Vinita says
Recently I am getting lots of 404 page errors in google webmaster. While revamping my wordpress website, instead of redirecting old urls to new, I just edited existing urls to new ones. e.g. website.com/url1 was edited to website.com/url2. Now webmaster if giving 404 error for old urls i.e. website.com/url1. How am I supposed to solve this error? (there are almost 155 urls with 404 errors so cant ignore)
WPBeginner Support says
See our guide on how to setup redirects in WordPress.
Admin
Sandy says
Is there a plugin that can find 404 errors and redirect them safely with best SEO tactics? Or should i do a edit find and replace in my xml file and remove the urls?
appreciate your ideas…
Michael says
changing the right to 660 made my site unavailable. i had to set .htaccess to 644 (which was the original setting). regards Michael
Swadesh says
Thanks a lot
Its working for me.
Kieron Atkinson says
I’m running wordpress on a client’s in-house server and even though the htaccess file is there with the rewrite module sequence, permalinks are still not working. In fact all the URLs are coming up as example.com/index.php/permalink.
How do I check if the module rewrite is enabled on the server? My client says that they have that enabled but it still doesn’t work.
Many thanks for your help.
Kieron
Renee says
Mahalo nui loa (thank you very much)!
Reassigning the Permalinks is exactly what was needed after moving 10 sites to a new hosting company.
Abundant blessings to you and your team.
WPBeginner Support says
Hi Renee,
Glad you found it helpful and thanks for the kind words. You may also want to join us on Twitter for more WordPress tips and tutorials.
Admin
Steve says
Thank you for your well written article. I have logged in to both /wp-content and /wp-includes/ and I havent found my .htaccess file.
Is it possible that I dont have one as I also get the 404 error if i try and redirect a page usin Redirection in WP.
Thanks in advance.
Steve
WPBeginner Support says
Please see our guide on why you can’t find .htaccess file on your WordPress site.
Admin
Paras says
hello
i am facing this same problem
i tried your method but still its showing error
Margarita says
Today I was about to launch my web after 5 months working very hard in localhost. I was very happy but exhausted. While doing all the migration process, my site was gone. I had made a backup of course, but after trying a hundred times nothing worked. All seemed lost… until I found your post and it was solved in less than 30 min.
My day has been awful, a waste of many hours and energies. But now I go to bed with a smile in my face. Happy again. Infinite thanks.
Marga Rubio Soto
WPBeginner Support says
You are welcome. We are glad you found the article helpful. Don’t forget to join us on Twitter for more WordPress tips and tutorials.
Admin