Website being redirected to “checkout”

It looks like this redirect happens from the server used by the website. It is because there are some static files such as readme.html and license.txt that can’t be accessed.

For example, https://www.gretchenpeters.com/readme.html — this file is usually loaded directly without going through WordPress, but in our case, it also causes the redirect.

Can you please check if there is any server caching enabled inside your hosting service?

Hi aatanasov and thank you very much for the reply. No, there is no server caching enabled via the hosting service.

Hi, I see, can you please share the code inside the .htaccess file? There might be something that causes the redirect.

• This reply was modified 2 years, 2 months ago by aatanasov.

Here’s the .htaccess file:

# Really Simple SSL
Header always set Strict-Transport-Security: “max-age=31536000” env=HTTPS
Header always set X-Content-Type-Options “nosniff”
Header always set Content-Security-Policy “upgrade-insecure-requests”
Header always set X-XSS-Protection “1; mode=block”
Header always set Expect-CT “max-age=7776000, enforce”
Header always set Referrer-Policy: “no-referrer-when-downgrade”
Header always append X-Frame-Options SAMEORIGIN
Header always set Permissions-Policy “geolocation=(); midi=();notifications=();push=();sync-xhr=();accelerometer=(); gyroscope=(); magnetometer=(); payment=(); camera=(); microphone=();usb=(); xr=();speaker=(self);vibrate=();fullscreen=(self);”
# End Really Simple SSL

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

Thanks, can you please backup the .htaccess file and remove everything inside it(so it remains an empty file)?

Also, if you can, please do a full site backup because it might require a lot of debugging until we find the root of the problem.

OK, I’ve put up an empty .htaccess file and it is still being redirected to that “checkout” URL.

Clearing the .htaccess file allows us to access other folders/files on the server.

You should be able to access the WordPress dashboard. However, opening https://www.gretchenpeters.com/wp-admin/ shows such a page: https://ibb.co/Q6jYnVZ

This page isn’t part of WordPress.

It seems that the domain name isn’t configured correctly. Have you recently changed something related to the domain name?

No, we have not changed anything recently related to the domain or domain configuration. However… this site is set up to use a different location for WordPress than the site URL: the WordPress installation is inside a folder called “worldpetershellocruel”. The main index file in the root uses this:

/** Loads the WordPress Environment and Template */
require(‘./worldpetershellocruel/wp-blog-header.php’);

It’s always been that way, since it was built almost 10 years ago.

So, to access the admin you use:

https://gretchenpeters.com/worldpetershellocruel/wp-admin/

Trying that still loads the redirect URL.

Thanks, we have some progress.

After clearing the .htaccess file, this URL works (https://www.gretchenpeters.com/worldpetershellocruel/license.txt) without redirecting.

Please do the following steps:

1. Revert the previous .htaccess file.
2. Do a website backup if possible.
3. Disable all plugins (by renaming the plugins folder to ~plugins — then create an empty folder plugins). The plugins folder is located inside wp-content. There would probably be PHP fatal errors, but we’re first trying to find what causes the redirect.
4. If the redirect disappears, revert the uploads folder, and start disabling each plugin separately until you find which plugin causes the issue (you can rename the plugin’s folder by adding ~ in front of its name.
5. If the issue isn’t related to the used plugins, rename your theme folder and check if the redirect persists.

After that, please let us know what has happened.

• This reply was modified 2 years, 2 months ago by aatanasov.

Thank you! I will work on this and get back to you with what I find out.

OK, I found the problem! It is a plugin called “authorizenet-payment-gateway-for-woocommerce.” When that is disabled everything works perfectly. With that plugin enabled we get the redirect. Thank you so much for your help, I really, really appreciate it. Now I need to contact the plugin developer and see what’s up.

Great, I’m glad to hear you’ve found out what causes the issue.

Please feel free to mark this ticket as resolved.