Sitemap keeps getting deleted

Hello @everade

Thanks for reaching out regarding your sitemap. Your Yoast SEO-generated sitemap index is located at /sitemap_index.xml/ and not /sitemap.xml/. Please ensure to follow this guide and submit only /sitemap_index.xml/.

If you receive any errors in the Google Search Console, please provide us with screenshots of the error.

You can use any image-sharing service like https://pasteboard.co/, https://snag.gy/, https://imgur.com/, https://snipboard.io/, or even upload the screenshot to your own website. Once you upload it to an image-sharing service, please share the link to the image here.

I’m aware that it’s located at sitemap_index.xml
I just made a little typo.

So i repeat:
sitemap_index.xml keeps getting deleted / removed / becomes unaccessable after a few minutes. It works initially though…

https://pasteboard.co/Eue4vAH4Vo1T.png

• This reply was modified 1 year, 3 months ago by everade.

Please ensure that the sitemap feature is kept ON. Do you have another sitemap plugin such as Jetpack?

It is kept on.
To make it work again i have to specifically deactivate it (save)
Then activate it again (save again).

That will make it work for some minutes, before it doesn’t become available again.

I don’t use Jetpack and i’m not aware of any other plugin that would do anything SEO or Sitemap related unless Site Kit by Google.

Can you make the URL of your site visible in the screenshot?

https://ibb.co/Np5cqtJ

• This reply was modified 1 year, 3 months ago by everade.

Thanks for the screenshot. Since 5.5, WordPress has had its own in-built XML sitemaps, which can be found here. Since the XML sitemap feature in WordPress 5.5 is very basic, as of Yoast SEO 14.5, we?automatically turn off?the default XML sitemap, and make sure that ours runs flawlessly.

So if Yoast SEO XML sitemap feature is on, the default WordPress sitemap should redirect to Yoast SEO’s, but this isn’t happening.

Please navigate to WordPress > Settings > Permalinks and save changes without actually making any changes.

Do let us know how it goes.

I did, and it seems to have de-activated the XML sitemaps settings in Yoast.
I’ve now re-enabled Yoast XML sitemaps. Although the wp-sitemap.xml is now forwarded properly, the Yoast sitemap still doesn’t work.

I’ve then disabled and enabled the Yoast XML sitemap once more.
It now works. (18:00 CEST)

Still working 1 hour later. Will follow up if the issue persists. Thank you.

Thanks for trying the suggested troubleshooting steps. The Yoast SEO-generated XML sitemap index now loads for me too!

Don’t forget to submit it to search engines. And if you notice any anomalies or errors in Google Search Console, don’t hesitate to reach out again.

I was out of country for a few days, and noticed that during my absence the issue came back. So i wasn’t even logged in into wp-admin at all when it happened.
So here we are again, the issue persists.

Is there anything else that i could do? Sitemaps were the main reason why i even installed Yoast, and now i’m just confronted with constant issues.

You mentioned that you weren’t even login to wp-admin when it happend.

The server error logs usually provide more details about the issue. If you have access to your server error log, note the date and time before generating the error again. Then, immediately check your server error log for any errors during that period. If you don’t have access to your server error log, please ask your hosting provider to look for you.

If you or your web host cannot pinpoint the cause, please provide us with a copy of the server error log for further investigation. As server logs can cover a significant amount of time, please limit the error log to a few minutes before and after the behavior was reproduced.

If the server error log does not contain any errors at the time of the issue, please enable advanced WordPress debugging with the code here. This code requires that you change line 84 to point to a path on your server. Your web host can provide you with a secure path to save the error.log file.

This thread was marked resolved due to a lack of activity, but you’re always welcome to re-open the topic. Please read this post before opening a new request.