Fixing WordPress Permalink and 404 Issues

Fixing WordPress Permalink and 404 Issues

If your WordPress pages are returning 404 errors when they should exist, or links within your site are broken after a migration or plugin change, the most common fix is to flush (regenerate) your WordPress rewrite rules.

The Quick Fix: Flush Permalinks

1. Log in to your WordPress admin at yourdomain.com/wp-admin
2. Go to Settings > Permalinks
3. Without changing anything, click Save Changes

This regenerates the .htaccess file and flushes the rewrite rules. In most cases, 404 errors will be resolved immediately after doing this.

If You Cannot Access WordPress Admin

If the 404 issue is preventing you from logging in or accessing admin:

1. Connect to your site via SFTP. See SFTP Access
2. Navigate to the root of your WordPress installation
3. Open the .htaccess file
4. Replace the contents between the WordPress comment markers with the default WordPress rules:

# 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

1. Save the file
2. Log in to WordPress admin and re-save Permalinks as above

Permalink Settings After Migration

If you have recently migrated your site to Kapsule, your old .htaccess file may contain rules from a different server environment. After migration:

1. Go to Settings > Permalinks
2. Select your preferred URL structure (for example, Post name)
3. Click Save Changes

If the Issue Persists

Check the following:

• Confirm mod_rewrite is enabled on the server (Kapsule enables this by default)
• Ensure the .htaccess file in your site root is writable by the web server
• Deactivate recently installed plugins one at a time to check for conflicts

If none of these resolve the issue, open a support ticket in KPanel under Support.