OK so I learned that there is a WPML setting called Browser language redirect that was the culprit. It is a setting that will try to remember a visitor’s language pref and try to redirect to the appropriate language page. In my case it was turned on and obviously conflicting with my 404 page. In my case this feature is not that necessary so I have turned it off and the problem has been solved.
Hello all, I disabled all plugins and turned them all on one by one and it is the WPML Multilingual CMS plugin causing the issue. And didn’t even have to use twentyfourteen. It’s a paid plugin and they offer support. I’ll follow up with them. I’ll post the solution back here tho so that others can benefit from the knowledge.
