Sitemap_index.xml – Page Not Found (Error 404)

I’ve already resolved this…

For anyone else experiencing it:

It’s due to the caching plugin – W3 Total Cache
Under that is a section for cache priming.

When enabled and set as default, the XML path to the sitemap lookup to do this pre-caching is:
sitemap_index.xml

You just need to ensure it’s set correctly to:
sitemap.xml

Then resave it, easy fix (was just looking in the wrong place).

Thank you so much, 3Lancer! It worked like a charm. For those who are struggling to find the exact location of this setting, you need to go to (W3 Total Cache)Performance>Page Cache>Cache Preload>Sitemap URL

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How to correct this? “Include sitemap in HTML format (The required PHP XSL Module is not installed)”

I`m about “Google XML Sitemaps” plugin

@achi_nr – PHP XSL Module is something your Host server would provide for your PHP. Depending on your Web Server, check under your cPanel, root access (if available), or ask them to install it for you.

@3lancer @esrimve5

Should i tick the following 2 options under > Cache Preload as well?

1. Automatically prime the page cache
2. Preload the post cache upon publish events

The following were already set to the below numbers.

Update interval: 900 Seconds
Pages per interval: 10

Thank you!

@chris790 – Yeah, that’s fine and should work on most servers.

Automatically prime the page cache (ticked)
Update interval: 900 Seconds
Pages per interval: 10
Sitemap URL: /sitemap.xml
(or whatever your sitemap location is, ensure this is valid URI)

@3lancer

Thank you so much for the reply, I ticked both -Automatically prime the page cache & – Preload the post cache upon publish events.

Would appreciate some insight if you can regarding the below question.

My links are all Indexed, sitemap opens up via https://www.wasi.lk/sitemap.xml as well. Though sometimes, it opens up all weird in txt format.

But on GWM says “0” Sitemaps added, and when I click sitemaps and go in, Sitemap says “Pending”, however the links shows indexed.

On my root folder I have only the following 2 files for sitemaps:

sitemap.backup.xml
sitemap.backup.xml.gz

This has been going on for about a month now and it’s annoying. Any help would be appreciated ??

Thanks!

@chris790 – If I was you, I would disable the HTML version of the sitemap (sitemap.html). Under the (sitemap-misc.xml) it’s linked that, therefore creating a cycle, doubling up search engine crawlers and confusing them.

@3lancer

Thanks, I’ll try this. One last questions I promise,

I don’t have a sitemap.xml or a sitemap.xml.gz on my root directory. I only have the backups mentioned in my last post. Is this also an issue?

Should I manually add the sitemap.xml file to my root?

Thanks!

@chris790 – It’s a dynamically generated page from the Plugin. Therefore you shouldn’t create it, it will create a virtual page for itself. So long you can visit it via URL, it’s fine.