WordPress – remove categories in url broken on live

Hi guys,

I have a website that works fine on my localhost making use of any of the followings:

• editing .htaccess
• using the function on https://www.webdevtuts.net/php/how-to-remove-category-from-wordpress-url-structure/
• using the plugin

I basically want the website to make use of clean urls on the live server (ie. https://www.site.com/taxis or https://www.site.com/cars). I am able to achieve all of the above using any of the methods, but:

1. on my local, the content displayed on https://www.site.com/taxis will display taxis only and the https://www.site.com/cars displays cars only. This is highly depended on the wordpress categories. The website links are infact categories (carts, cards, trailers, etc)

2. How can the same website work on the local host and fail to work on the server after having tried so many alternatives?

I have tried deleting the .htaccess file and the web.config files on multiple occasions. I have tried disabling the plugin and just relying on the .htaccess along.

I have tried refreshing the permalinks.

NB: I am able to get the clean urls on the live, just not the categorised content on each page (cars -> under cars and carts -> under carts).

Is there something I am missing?