Title: Permalinks 404, a continuing issue
Last modified: August 30, 2016

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# Permalinks 404, a continuing issue

 *  [Malatesa](https://wordpress.org/support/users/malatesa/)
 * (@malatesa)
 * [10 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/permalinks-404-a-continuing-issue/)
 * Hi all. I’m helping a few friends with their WordPress site. I’m a competent 
   programmer. The issue we are having is that some permalinks give a 404. We have
   never changed the permalink structure. Most times, 3 of the permalinks are 404’
   s. here’s the weird thing….when I go in to the Admin area, the issue goes away
   and all pages can be found. But give it a few hours and we’re back to 404’s on
   some permalinks pages. I have already locked down .htaccess. It is read only.
   It can not be written to. So we know it isn’t the .htaccess file because some
   times it works fine without 404’s. but give it a few hours and the 404’s return.
   Then I have to go back into the wp-admin and just sit there and the 404’s go 
   away. Somehow the permalinks are changing. How? Why? Why would a permalink change
   from available to Not Found, in just an hour?

Viewing 2 replies - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)

 *  [Bill](https://wordpress.org/support/users/chubbycrow/)
 * (@chubbycrow)
 * [10 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/permalinks-404-a-continuing-issue/#post-6614397)
 * Try re-saving your permalink settings at `Settings > Permalinks`, but I believe
   that .htaccess will have to be writable by WP in order to be successful in that.
   Most of the time, re-saving clears up those 404s.
 * EDIT: reference [https://codex.wordpress.org/Using_Permalinks](https://codex.wordpress.org/Using_Permalinks)
 *  Thread Starter [Malatesa](https://wordpress.org/support/users/malatesa/)
 * (@malatesa)
 * [10 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/permalinks-404-a-continuing-issue/#post-6614402)
 * Upon re-saving the permalinks, it absolutely solves the missing pages issue…for
   a while. And like 1000 other posts just like this one, the 404’s come back.
 * The .htaccess file should never change, unless there is a need to *hard ban* 
   an ip. Excepting for requiring a ban of a specific IP which would be written 
   in the .htaccess file, the .htaccess file should *never* be re-written. This 
   re-writing of the .htaccess file is a myth that just won’t go away. .htaccess
   should remain as unchanged as possible. When permalinks are added, subtracted,
   or changed in any way, the .htaccess file does *not* need to be informed of the
   changes. .htaccess only converts url’s with stbs, to post links. That’s all it
   does. It should *never* be changed, except for adding an IP to ban for good.
 * But you’re right, after re-saving the permalinks, it solves the issue…but only
   for a while. So, what must be happening is the database that holds stub information
   is either not readable, or simply inaccurate when the 404’s happen (to thousands
   of people that have reported this same issue). So, why would the database that
   holds stub information ever need to change? It shouldn’t. Just like the .htaccess,
   there’s no need to ever change the permalinks unless adding or subtracting on.
   but *something* is editing those stubs in the database, and that’s causing the
   404’s.
 * I have a theory. My theory is that the database might be taking too long to pull
   the information about the stub, in order to figure out where the real url is.
   If the database call for pulling up that stub information takes too long, it 
   might come back with something like an empty database query. And then it just
   reports it as not found, a 404.
 * The other theory I have is that one of the security plugins is reading the database
   or writing to the database, at the moment of the 404, and locking the database
   so nothing else can write to the database until the plugin’s job is done. In 
   that case, the lock on the database (to prevent possible corruption when one 
   reads and the other writes) could be returning an empty query because of the 
   lock.
 * What I might have to do is create actual index.php files at those virtual stubs
   so that I can use a redirect in those headers to try to point to the correct 
   post location when there’s a 404. because at the time of the 404, the client 
   is *probably* looking at the actual url, not the stub->post .
 * I dunno. It just feels like this whole permalink thing is a bad idea that caught
   on and it’s too late to change it now.
 * If anyone has any ideas how these 404’s happen, lemme know. For us, sometimes
   they are there, sometimes they are not. And *nothing* changes on the site at 
   all. Some days 404’s and some days not. Just like 1000 other people have reported.
   Ideas?

Viewing 2 replies - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)

The topic ‘Permalinks 404, a continuing issue’ is closed to new replies.

 * In: [Fixing WordPress](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/how-to-and-troubleshooting/)
 * 2 replies
 * 2 participants
 * Last reply from: [Malatesa](https://wordpress.org/support/users/malatesa/)
 * Last activity: [10 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/permalinks-404-a-continuing-issue/#post-6614402)
 * Status: not resolved

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