Title: Permalinks problem 3.1.1 Help Please Last modified: August 19, 2016 --- # Permalinks problem 3.1.1 Help Please * Resolved [graham333](https://wordpress.org/support/users/graham333/) * (@graham333) * [15 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/permalinks-problem-311-help-please/) * Hi Guys, * I have been emailing my hosting tech support all day and I have spent 3 hours searching to no avail for an answer to this problem. * I spent 1 week setting up a new site, I have used the default theme, and as per usual used permalinks: /%postname%/ * Yesterday all was well, today all 404’s for all pages. have disabled all plugins, removed /%postname%/ and the site is now usable with ugly urls eg ?123. BUT the site will only work in Firefox, Opera or IE still return 404’s. * I am not techie so I have 3 questions. * 1. is there an easy fix for this, perhaps a plugin? * 2. Can I just solve it by using just pages instead of posts and categories. * 3. If not can I downgrade 3.1.1 for a version that worked perfectly if so where can I get an older version. * Thanks in advance guys. Graham. Viewing 15 replies - 1 through 15 (of 16 total) 1 [2](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/permalinks-problem-311-help-please/page/2/?output_format=md) [→](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/permalinks-problem-311-help-please/page/2/?output_format=md) * Moderator [Ipstenu (Mika Epstein)](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ipstenu/) * (@ipstenu) * 🏳️‍🌈 Advisor and Activist * [15 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/permalinks-problem-311-help-please/#post-2029847) * You shouldn’t use postname alone for your permalinks (it will slow things down should you use a bunch of pages among other things). * Of course you can use the older versions. Go to [http://wordpress.org/download/](http://wordpress.org/download/) and click on older releases. * Before that, however, you should try the usual debugging. * Do ANY fancy permalinks work? Try the YYYY/MM/DD/postName one for example. * Check your .htaccess – is it there’s and does it look right? * Turn off ALL your plugins. See if one of them are causing the issues. * Thread Starter [graham333](https://wordpress.org/support/users/graham333/) * (@graham333) * [15 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/permalinks-problem-311-help-please/#post-2029904) * Thanks for your reply Ipstenu, * Looks like I have been misinformed about the use of /%postname%/, and I would imagine millions of others too. * Ok, this morning I deactivated all plugins and re-installed 3.1.1. automatically. * Once again the site now works but ONLY in Firefox, both IE and Opera browsers return a not found, this is all beyond me but it strikes me 3.1.1 is just not stable and has a bug? * I tried the fancy permalinks as you suggested, but it made no difference in IE and Opera, in any event, I need short urls and really want to avoid ‘category’ appearing if possible. .hta access is beyond me I’m afraid I would not know if it was right or not. * I am very patient but this is turning into a nightmare, so in the absence of a fix my question has now changed to: * What is the procedure to install an earlier version of 3.1? I am assuming I have to do it manually via FTP, do I delete all the wp files associated with this site first, or do I only need to replace certain files. Or can I just replace the whole lot file for file with ftp? * Your help would be much appreciated as this is not something I have attempted before and I don’t want to mess things up. * Thanks guys * Moderator [Ipstenu (Mika Epstein)](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ipstenu/) * (@ipstenu) * 🏳️‍🌈 Advisor and Activist * [15 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/permalinks-problem-311-help-please/#post-2029905) * Yeah, a lot of ‘SEO Experts’ messed people up saying it should be ‘postname’ :/ Read [http://ottopress.com/2010/category-in-permalinks-considered-harmful/](http://ottopress.com/2010/category-in-permalinks-considered-harmful/) for some nitty gritty on it. * > Once again the site now works but ONLY in Firefox, both IE and Opera browsers > return a not found, this is all beyond me but it strikes me 3.1.1 is just not > stable and has a bug? * That doesn’t sound like 3.1.1 actually, but the THEME. * Can you share your URL? Have you tried flushing your browser cache for IE and Opera? * > .hta access is beyond me I’m afraid I would not know if it was right or not. * That’s okay 🙂 Can you copy/paste it here? We can take a look. * Thread Starter [graham333](https://wordpress.org/support/users/graham333/) * (@graham333) * [15 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/permalinks-problem-311-help-please/#post-2029906) * Thank you so much Ipstenu I will get right on it. * BTW, yes I emptied the browsers every time I tried something different. * Thread Starter [graham333](https://wordpress.org/support/users/graham333/) * (@graham333) * [15 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/permalinks-problem-311-help-please/#post-2029909) * It appears I do not have a .hta access file for this site, I have looked all through the files for this site is there supposed to be one? * I did switch themes, I used Socrates because I know this is a good one, but it did not make any difference to the other browsers. * here is my site, this is brand new btw only launched last Sunday. [http://bestriftguide.org](http://bestriftguide.org) * Thanks for the heads-up about the so-called seo ‘experts’, as per usual they do not seem to know what they are talking about 🙂 * Thread Starter [graham333](https://wordpress.org/support/users/graham333/) * (@graham333) * [15 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/permalinks-problem-311-help-please/#post-2029910) * Hello again, * Sorry, Here is my hta.access I tried to use cpanel, found it using ftp. * # BEGIN WordPress RewriteEngine On RewriteBase / RewriteRule ^index\.php$ – [L] RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME}!- d RewriteRule . /index.php [L] * # END WordPress * Moderator [Ipstenu (Mika Epstein)](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ipstenu/) * (@ipstenu) * 🏳️‍🌈 Advisor and Activist * [15 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/permalinks-problem-311-help-please/#post-2029912) * Well done finding it 🙂 Yeah, you have to look for hidden files. And that IS the right one. So good! * Did you set your site up with a static front page, out of curiosity? * Also, do you have any plugins turned on? You will need to turn them off for testing. * Thread Starter [graham333](https://wordpress.org/support/users/graham333/) * (@graham333) * [15 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/permalinks-problem-311-help-please/#post-2029914) * Phew, yes I don’t dabble with ftp that often it just came to me to use that. * Yes, I always set a static homepage. * All plug ins are disabled, these are the ones that I have installed, please advise if there are any there that may cause a prob. Growmap Anti Spambot , Google XML Sitemaps, Platinum SEO, Missing Data Platinum SEO Pack, PC Robots.txt Robots Meta SEO Slugs Snapshot Backup W3 Total Cache WassUp WP-Optimize All in one Favicon, cbnet Ping Optimizer * **WP No Category Base**, this is the one that worries me most is it ok to use? * Moderator [Ipstenu (Mika Epstein)](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ipstenu/) * (@ipstenu) * 🏳️‍🌈 Advisor and Activist * [15 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/permalinks-problem-311-help-please/#post-2029932) * > WP No Category Base, this is the one that worries me most is it ok to use? * Yeaaah that would be the first one I’d turn off. :/ * But also W3 Total Cache. Basically, when things go really weird, we tell folks to turn off ALL plugins. As painful as that is. Then, if everything works as it should, turn ’em back on one at a time. * Thread Starter [graham333](https://wordpress.org/support/users/graham333/) * (@graham333) * [15 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/permalinks-problem-311-help-please/#post-2029941) * Looks like I gotta trash this site, it still is not not working with no plugins on a reinstall. * Is it worth deleting the whole site from my server and starting again from scratch or am I going to get the same problem. * I have never had a issue with wp updates before, this one seems to have a big problem. * Moderator [Ipstenu (Mika Epstein)](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ipstenu/) * (@ipstenu) * 🏳️‍🌈 Advisor and Activist * [15 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/permalinks-problem-311-help-please/#post-2029943) * Before you delete it all… * Can you make a second site? Spin that up and see if the same problem happens. * Thread Starter [graham333](https://wordpress.org/support/users/graham333/) * (@graham333) * [15 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/permalinks-problem-311-help-please/#post-2029944) * Heads-up guys, * My inability to accept defeat has paid off, after checking through I noticed my home page had been reset to draft. * I have just tried my site on IE and never have I had a page load so fast with a couple of big images on it, bang! less than half a second. * I know I am a stupid **** but I never thought of that. * If you are still there Ipstenu perhaps you would just try that for me too make sure it’s ok on a different server. * Moderator [Ipstenu (Mika Epstein)](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ipstenu/) * (@ipstenu) * 🏳️‍🌈 Advisor and Activist * [15 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/permalinks-problem-311-help-please/#post-2029945) * It’s working fine now for me on Chrome too. So … yay! 🙂 * Start turning plugins back on, one at a time. * Thread Starter [graham333](https://wordpress.org/support/users/graham333/) * (@graham333) * [15 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/permalinks-problem-311-help-please/#post-2029949) * [@ipstenu](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ipstenu/) * I would like to thank you personally very much for all your help today, and giving up your time with umpteen replies to me to help resolve this issue. * This stuff is impossible to figure out unless you properly understand what you are doing, even reading up on it doesn’t help that much if you do not understand how the system works. * Without you guys 99% of website owners would be stuffed. * Thanks again dude. Take care. Best regards Graham. * One final thought: Code is poetry, but it is a lot easier to press a button. 🙂 🙂 * Moderator [Ipstenu (Mika Epstein)](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ipstenu/) * (@ipstenu) * 🏳️‍🌈 Advisor and Activist * [15 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/permalinks-problem-311-help-please/#post-2029952) * Hey, no problem! I started out where you are, and built up my skill set over the last 15-odd years of screwin’ around with websites. * But think of it this way: You didn’t learn to drive a car in one day. It all takes time. You’re doin’ great. Viewing 15 replies - 1 through 15 (of 16 total) 1 [2](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/permalinks-problem-311-help-please/page/2/?output_format=md) [→](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/permalinks-problem-311-help-please/page/2/?output_format=md) The topic ‘Permalinks problem 3.1.1 Help Please’ is closed to new replies. ## Tags * [permalink error](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/permalink-error/) * In: [Fixing WordPress](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/how-to-and-troubleshooting/) * 16 replies * 2 participants * Last reply from: [graham333](https://wordpress.org/support/users/graham333/) * Last activity: [15 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/permalinks-problem-311-help-please/page/2/#post-2029955) * Status: resolved ## Topics ### Topics with no replies ### Non-support topics ### Resolved topics ### Unresolved topics ### All topics