Title: WordPress beginner – problems after changing permalinks Last modified: August 31, 2016 --- # WordPress beginner – problems after changing permalinks * Resolved [ruth_a_t](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ruth_a_t/) * (@ruth_a_t) * [10 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wordpress-beginner-problems-after-changing-permalinks/) * Hi * I really hope someone can help me with this because I’m totally stuck! I’m new to WordPress and not very technical, and I’m building a website using Elegant Themes’ Divi theme. All of my pages are drafts at the moment because they are not yet ready to publish. A couple of days ago I changed my permalinks, and since then, when I click “preview” I get my “under construction” page, and the tab says “not found”. * In the permalinks settings, there is the following message: * If your .htaccess file were writable, we could do this automatically, but it isn’t so these are the mod_rewrite rules you should have in your .htaccess file. Click in the field and press CTRL + a to select all. * There is then a box with the following code in it: * RewriteEngine On RewriteBase / RewriteRule ^index\. php$ – [L] RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME}!- d RewriteRule . /index.php [L] * I understand that I somehow need to give WordPress access to this directory file, or else alter it myself, but I don’t know how to actually DO either of these things. I asked my hosting company for help but they said I should ask Elegant Themes, but I’m pretty sure this isn’t a theme problem. I have managed to locate a text file called .htaaccess in the control panel of my hosting account, but I don’t know whether this is the right file or what to do to it! * If anyone has any advice (and feel free to talk to me as if I’m completely clueless) that would be enormously appreciated. * Many thanks, Ruth Viewing 5 replies - 1 through 5 (of 5 total) * [JohnPope](https://wordpress.org/support/users/johnpope/) * (@johnpope) * [10 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wordpress-beginner-problems-after-changing-permalinks/#post-6970801) * Hi Ruth, * You are almost there. * The .htaccess file in the control panel will be the one you need to change. * You have two options, you can either change the permissions of that file so that WP can write to it, or you can edit the file yourself by copying and pasting the code that you have pasted above into there. * Don’t change or delete anything else in the .htaccess, just paste that after anything that is already (or not) in there. * Thread Starter [ruth_a_t](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ruth_a_t/) * (@ruth_a_t) * [10 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wordpress-beginner-problems-after-changing-permalinks/#post-6970822) * Hi John * Thanks so much for getting back to me. I went into the text file, but I found that the code that is already there is exactly the same as what WordPress is telling me it should be in the error message! So what is in the text file, exactly, is: * # BEGIN WordPress RewriteEngine On RewriteBase / RewriteRule ^index\.php$ – [L] RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME}!- d RewriteRule . /index.php [L] # END WordPress * Should I just paste in the “new” code anyway, even though it is exactly the same?! So confused! * Thank you! Ruth * [JohnPope](https://wordpress.org/support/users/johnpope/) * (@johnpope) * [10 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wordpress-beginner-problems-after-changing-permalinks/#post-6970829) * Ok, do you have in the control panel the option to change the ‘permissions’ of the .htaccess file? * If so, change them to 644 and then go back into the permalinks settings and save them again. * Thread Starter [ruth_a_t](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ruth_a_t/) * (@ruth_a_t) * [10 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wordpress-beginner-problems-after-changing-permalinks/#post-6970835) * I can right-click, select Chmod and enter a value, so I entered 644, then logged back into my website, set the permalinks to post name and clicked save. I got a message saying…I need to update my .hta access file! Argh! * Thread Starter [ruth_a_t](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ruth_a_t/) * (@ruth_a_t) * [10 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wordpress-beginner-problems-after-changing-permalinks/#post-6970916) * Hi John * Just to let you know this is sorted now – I got someone from my hosting company to log in, and in addition to the permissions issue there was something about the home and site URLs not matching, which I don’t fully understand, but in any case she has sorted it for me. * Just wanted to say thanks very much for trying to help me – I’m a total beginner at this! * Best wishes, Ruth Viewing 5 replies - 1 through 5 (of 5 total) The topic ‘WordPress beginner – problems after changing permalinks’ is closed to new replies. ## Tags * [htaccess](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/htaccess/) * [permalinks](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/permalinks/) * In: [Fixing WordPress](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/how-to-and-troubleshooting/) * 5 replies * 2 participants * Last reply from: [ruth_a_t](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ruth_a_t/) * Last activity: [10 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wordpress-beginner-problems-after-changing-permalinks/#post-6970916) * Status: resolved ## Topics ### Topics with no replies ### Non-support topics ### Resolved topics ### Unresolved topics ### All topics