htaccess and 404 errors

Did you ask your web hosting that mod_rewrite is enabled on your service?

To expand on the above comment, .htaccess is an Apache specific file, if your host is running on anything else like nginx, it will not work.

Thanks. Before I go asking my client’s terrible host, doesn’t the fact that the file is actually rewritten when changes are made mean that mod_rewrie is enabled?

It may not, but I am a dunce.

Hi all. There is a LAMP stack installed on an Ubuntu 14.04 server, so it should be good.

What are the permalinks being changed to? Are you talking post specific permalinks or global permalinks?

Global. Selecting the radio button in the Permalinks settings to Post Name and saving it.

Any luck anyone?

mod_rewrite is confirmed as enabled on the server. I got rid of, then reinstalled wordpress from the server, including the MySQL database completely and I still am having the same issue.

Help?!

Make sure your htaccess is working properly.
You can use a redirection for a test:

https://www.htaccessredirect.net/

Sorry, but I’m a little dumb when it comes to this stuff (I just want to make pretty websites) and the documentation on that site you mentioned is a little slim. Just fill out the 301 redirect form, and generate the file? Replace my current htaccess with that new generated one?

Thanks eight million for your help.

.htaccess is a configuration file for use on web servers running the Apache Web Server software. When a .htaccess file is placed in a directory which is in turn ‘loaded via the Apache Web Server’, then the .htaccess file is detected and executed by the Apache Web Server software.
WordPress Pretty Permalinks use .htaccess to do the job. As you are running Lamp Stack, your web server software is Apache so you can use .htaccess with no difficulty but you need to check if mod_rewrite module installed.

Please switch your global Permalinks to default and paste your .htaccess here. Then switch it to Post Name and paste the .htaccess again. I need these two so I can make sure you have no .htaccess Generation Issues.

Here is the mod_rewrite proof:

https://awesomescreenshot.com/060426wl05

Here is the ‘default’ htaccess:

# BEGIN WordPress

# END WordPress

And here is the Post Name htaccess:

# 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

Thanks again.

Are you using a SEO plugin like All in One SEO or something else?
Try to deactive all plugins and switch your theme to default then try.

If above didn’t help you, put “index.php” at the start of your custom permalink structure, for example:

/index.php/%postname%/

No plugins are active. It’s a fresh install.

Adding index.php does show the test page:

https://dev.boxiinteractive.com/index.php/test-page/

So what’s next then? How can I get the good url structure that doesn’t break everything?

Also, I appreciate the help. Thanks again.