Question

Why aren't my Wordpress permalinks working?

Posted December 5, 2016 8.5k views
CentOSWordPress

I have a Wordpress site in a sub directory:

/var/www/mysite/

When I visit http://myip/mysite/ it works with “Plain” permalinks (i.e. http://myip/mysite?page_id=6) and I can navigate the site.

However, when I use “Post name” permalinks (i.e. http://myip/mysite/mypage/), I get a 404. It works fine locally. This is what my .htaccess file looks like:

# BEGIN WordPress
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /mysite/
RewriteRule ^index\.php$ - [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /mysite/index.php [L]
</IfModule>
# END WordPress

Under Settings > General in Wordpress, I have both the Wordpress Address and Site Address set to:

http://myip/mysite

What am I missing?

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eightysix
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2 answers
xelawafs December 6, 2016

Hi @eightysix

Have you modified Apache virtual file for your domain to Allow URL rewrites? If not, here’s how you go about it:

Open the the Apache virtual file for your domain to make changes: 

sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/mysite.conf

Make these additions on the file

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerAdmin webmaster@localhost
    DocumentRoot /var/www/mysite
    ServerName server_domain_name_or_IP
    <Directory /var/www/mysite>
        AllowOverride All
    </Directory>
    . . .

Save and exit then enable mode rewrite which allows you to modify URLs:

sudo a2enmod rewrite

Reload Apache

sudo service apache2 reload
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  • vgledhill May 24, 2018

    Thanks. That cured my problem. I had an issue where it worked when in local dev environment but not on the live site.

    This was an issue because I have a forum which needs the permalinks to be “not” default for some reason.

    Reply Report
  • ddg2goodwin March 7, 2019

    Thank you so much. This did the trick. Now I have a functional multi-site setup with subdomains and everything. Not bad for an amateur. Thank you very much!

    Reply Report
  • mndeto May 10, 2019

    This is golden! I have experienced this so many times. this worked like a charm

    Reply Report
eightysix December 6, 2016

I don’t actually have a virtual host setup, but I believe I have allowed URL rewrites globally in my phpmyadmin file. I followed the instructions here:

https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-install-and-secure-phpmyadmin-on-ubuntu-14-04

sudo nano /etc/apache2/conf-available/phpmyadmin.conf

I added AllowOverride All to <Directory /usr/share/phpmyadmin>.

Then I restarted apache, but that didn’t work…

Do I require a virtual host?

How To Install and Secure phpMyAdmin on Ubuntu 14.04
by Justin Ellingwood
While many users require access to a database management system like MySQL, not all users feel comfortable interacting with the MySQL prompt on a daily basis. In this guide, we'll discuss how to install and secure phpMyAdmin, a web management interface for MySQL, on an Ubuntu 14.04 server.
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  • eightysix December 6, 2016

    I’m looking at this tutorial:

    https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-set-up-mod_rewrite

    In the How to permit changes in the .htaccess file section, I see that I should be editing the default config file:

    sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/default

    I’m apparently supposed to change AllowOverride None to AllowOverride All in <Directory /var/www/>, however, that file does not exist.

    I only see 000-default.conf and inside of that I do not see <Directory /var/www/>. Instead I see <VirtualHost *:80>. I’m not sure what I am missing.

    How To Set Up Mod_Rewrite
    by Etel Sverdlov
    This tutorial goes over Mod_Rewrite, an apache module that allows you to manipulate URLS to provide shorter or more relevant ones. This tutorial will go over Activating Mod_Rewrite, Creating and Using the required .htaccess page, and setting up the URL rewrites.
    Reply Report
    • eightysix December 6, 2016

      Ok, I found a thread discussing this and I think I have it working now.

      https://www.digitalocean.com/community/questions/how-can-i-fix-my-wordpress-permalinks

      I added my directory to the Virtual Host and allowed overrides for that specific directory. This is what 000-default.conf looks like now:

      <VirtualHost *:80>
        # The ServerName directive sets the request scheme, hostname and port that
        # the server uses to identify itself. This is used when creating
        # redirection URLs. In the context of virtual hosts, the ServerName
        # specifies what hostname must appear in the request's Host: header to
        # match this virtual host. For the default virtual host (this file) this
        # value is not decisive as it is used as a last resort host regardless.
        # However, you must set it for any further virtual host explicitly.
        #ServerName www.example.com

        ServerAdmin webmaster@localhost
        DocumentRoot /var/www

        # Available loglevels: trace8, ..., trace1, debug, info, notice, warn,
        # error, crit, alert, emerg.
        # It is also possible to configure the loglevel for particular
        # modules, e.g.
        #LogLevel info ssl:warn

        ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
        CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined

        # For most configuration files from conf-available/, which are
        # enabled or disabled at a global level, it is possible to
        # include a line for only one particular virtual host. For example the
        # following line enables the CGI configuration for this host only
        # after it has been globally disabled with "a2disconf".
        #Include conf-available/serve-cgi-bin.conf

        <Directory /var/www/mysite>
            Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews
            AllowOverride All
            Order allow,deny
            allow from all
                Require all granted
       </Directory>

</VirtualHost>

      The important part is the addition of:

      <Directory /var/www/mysite>
    Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews
    AllowOverride All
    Order allow,deny
    allow from all
        Require all granted
</Directory>

      This seems to be working!

      Reply Report
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