wp installed, permissions set but mixed functionality

Hello anoctave,

Can you please provide a link to the site that you are having issues with?

Did the server administrator of the organization perform the WordPress installation for you?

Yes the server administrator installed WordPress.

Here is the link: https://efm.dioceseofnewark.org/wordpress/

Interestingly, the front page displays and the sidebar displays, but if you click on anything but “home” on the menu, you will get a 404 page. The actual page is in the database. I was able to set all my theme preferences.

If you want to see the test site to compare, here is the link

Thank you for the info.

I believe the easiest place to start is to reset the permalink settings.

Once logged into the dashboard, in the left menu, go to “Settings”> “Permalinks”. Click on the “Default” option and save changes. Then click on the “Post Name” option and save changes again.

Please refresh your homepage and then see if this produces any changes while navigating to other pages.

Thank you so much.

I changed back to the default permalinks, and all the pages showed up. I then reinstated the post name and the pages disappeared, so I put it back to default.

Curious as to why that would happen.

So next, I tried again to update a plugin. Clicked on update now which brought up a screen to log into the server. I put the same settings that I use in Filezilla and it said that the user information was wrong.

Any idea what the problem is there?

You’ve been so very helpful.

You are welcome!

Before I suggest anymore ideas, I have a couple more questions to ask that might help me to narrow down the issues.

When you transferred the files from the test website to the client’s server, did you transfer only the custom theme files to the fresh WordPress install and then re-install the plugins from the dashboard, or did you also transfer the plugins folder from the test site to the client’s server?

Also, did you create new pages via the dashboard on the new WordPress install on the client’s server, or did you export the database to a file through either the test site dashboard or phpMyAdmin, and then import the test site database to the new site?

When you transferred the files from the test website to the client’s server:

Via Filezilla, I downloaded the parent theme, the child theme and the plugins from the test site to my computer and then uploaded them to the new site.

Also, did you create new pages:

I opened both wordpress sites (test and new) and manually copied each page from the old site to a new dashboard page on the new site. I also manually recreated the header, footer and side column in the theme options section of Appearance. All these occurred after the site admin had changed permissions.

I didn’t use a database backup because I have no control panel, that I know of from which to reach phpMyAdmin. (I should check to see if they have control panels for the subdomains.)

You might try renaming you plugins folder on the server to something different such as “pluginsOLD” or something similar (this will disable all plugins, but not delete them in case you have performed a lot of custom work to a plugin and need to keep the files for later). Then, go back and change the permalink settings again to “Post Name”, save changes, refresh your homepage, and see if you can still view the other pages in the menu.

If you can view all pages with this permalink setting applied, start installing your plugins via the dashboard one at a time, and be sure to make sure that you can still view the other pages after each install. This will give you up to date plugin installations as well as narrow down if a certain plugin is causing issues.

Do you think that renaming the plugins folder will enable me to ftp from within my WP installation?

Normally, I would say no, but since you were able to connect at an earlier time:

“I tried updating a plugin again and this time the ftp info I entered at least allowed WP to talk to the server. However, it would allow WP to create a folder.”

I would give it a try. Depending on the plugins used, something could be storing old information from when you developed the test site.

Unless the server admin changed some settings again, you should be able to connect from the dashboard (if prompted) with the information that they provided. You might have to contact the server admin again if that problem continues.

But also, renaming the plugins folder will tell us if one of the plugins is causing the permalink issue. It is odd that you cannot use the setting “Post Name”, which is often the desired setting for SEO purposes.

I never got through changing the plugins folder name in Filezilla. It wouldn’t let me. It wouldn’t let me create a folder, either. All of the permissions are listed as 755.

I’ve let the site admin know. If you have any suggestions, I’d greatly appreciate them.

At least right now, the site can be seen. Thanks.

It looks like files/folders with permissions 755 are only writeable by the file/folder owner, which in this case would be the server admin since he/she was the one to install WordPress. The permissions might need to be changed to 777, but that will allow anybody with server access to write to the file. Here is a good article discussing it:

https://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-change-file-permissions-using-filezilla-on-.html

Let me know if you continue to run into problems. I will be happy to help out if I can.