Big problem after Permalink update

Astrix
(@astrix)

10 years, 5 months ago

Hello,

I’m running a website on which permalinks are set as “post name” I had an article with the permalink like : “Potatoe”

I then published another article with permalink “Apple”

After publishing, I changed the permalink of the first article from “Potatoe” to “Coconut” and the second article from “Apple” to “Potatoe”.

Now, when I click on the second article which now has the “Potatoe” permalink, it’s loading the other article who used the “Potatoe” permalink first and now has “Coconut” permalink.

So basically, when I click anywhere (on the homepage or from category) on the second article’s link, which is now :

http://www.sitename.com/potatoe

It’s redirecting automatically to http://www.sitename.com/coconut and loading the first article…

I tried updating the permalink structure in WordPress settings with no luck…

Note that if I update the second article’s permalink from “Potatoe” to “Potatoe1” or anything different than “Potatoe”, it’s now loading the correct article…

What’s wrong ?

I tried deactivating every add on, changed my theme… no fix.

Is this a bug from the new version of WordPress ?

Thank you !

Viewing 11 replies - 1 through 11 (of 11 total)

Adeline
(@adeline)

10 years, 5 months ago

After changing each pages permalink, have you tried clearing your browsers cache or doing a hard refresh on your browser?

Another way to see if your permalinks have been updated is to open up another browser to see the changes.

Thread Starter Astrix
(@astrix)

10 years, 5 months ago

Tried with a fresh install of wordpress 4.4 with a new empty database, published new articles on an empty wordpress theme, tried changing permalinks just like previously, same result happened !

I tried unlogging and visit the site as a visitor, cleared cache, and cookies on my browser, changed browser : no fix.

Could it be hosting server related with permalinks being cached somewhere or is it an issue inside wordpress 4.4 ?

girlieworks
(@girlieworks)

10 years, 5 months ago

It’s due to this change (specifically, the removal of the is_404() && bit).

Whether or not the devs intended for that to be the outcome, I don’t rightfully know (but I could certainly see why it would be intentional: to avoid breaking URLs, old slugs should always redirect to their “replacement” slugs).

Thread Starter Astrix
(@astrix)

10 years, 5 months ago

Thanks for pointing this out !

But in the end, it gives a really weird redirecting. An article A using the exact same slug that was previously used by another article B first (before being changed) should not link to the article B when clicked on !

Is there a way to notify any dev of wordpress about this ? I’m still not sure if it’s 100% wordpress related but I don’t see how my hosting service would cause this to happen ?!

Thank you both for helping

girlieworks
(@girlieworks)

10 years, 5 months ago

An article A using the exact same slug that was previously used by another article B first (before being changed) should not link to the article B when clicked on !

Well, that’s where there’s room for debate. 🙂

If you believe that Article B must always be found based on its original slug, then you can’t also allow its original slug to be used for Article A.

Is there a way to notify any dev of wordpress about this ?

There are instructions here for reporting bugs (if that’s what you mean).

I’m still not sure if it’s 100% wordpress related but I don’t see how my hosting service would cause this to happen ?!

Based on my own testing, I’m 100% certain that it is WordPress which is responsible for this behavior, not your hosting service.

neotechnomad
(@neotechnomad)

10 years, 5 months ago

Just wondering… when you changed the name of the first article, did you change its “post slug” as well?
mel2337
(@mel2337)

10 years, 4 months ago
Thread Starter Astrix
(@astrix)

10 years, 4 months ago

The issue is actually worse than I expected !!

I tried posting a article named for example :

“This is an article”

It gave me this post permalink :

http://www.sitename.com/this-is-an-article

I published it. Fine, it was online and working.

I then deleted the article permanently.

I tried creating a new article with the EXACT SAME name “this is an article”

It gave this permalink again :
http://www.sitename.com/this-is-an-article

Then, guess what ?

I get an error 404 which says there is nothing found here !!

The article is noted as “published” in the article menu and the article slug is this-is-an-article I double checked, everything is right. But this wordpress version remembers the “ghost” from the old article which had the same name…

If I change the permalink manually to http://www.sitename.com/this-is-an-article-1 or anything else than http://www.sitename.com/this-is-an-article , then it displays the article fine…

Why that ?!

Am I the only one ?

Thread Starter Astrix
(@astrix)

10 years, 4 months ago

Well this permalink glitch is not so new apparently !

https://wordpress.org/support/topic/why-am-i-getting-a-404-error-on-a-published-post?replies=6

But I would like to know where are “ghost” permalinks stored in the database ?

Thread Starter Astrix
(@astrix)

10 years, 4 months ago

WELL, found a solution for this issue !

It was actually YOAST SEO plugin which caused the issue. Well, not directly, but it was preventing permalinks from being reset !

I had to deactivate YOAST SEO before setting permalinks back to default (like p=12)

Then, setting post name after again, and the article is now opening fine !

Adeline
(@adeline)

10 years, 4 months ago

@astrix – Thanks for letting us know the outcome of this issue!