Anything but default permalink format redirects to homepage

I started my wordpress site today on a custom domain. Everything was working fine until I changed the permalink format from the non-descriptive default one ?p=### to a custom format /%category%/%postname%/. However, this makes it so that any link I click on my site just redirects me to the homepage. I tested a couple other formats, only to have the same results. Only the default format works. I don’t have any content on the site yet so I’m willing to delete all my categories and posts if I have to. If someone could explain to me why this is happening and how I can fix it to have my custom format, I would appreciate it.
Thanks in advance 🙂