Hi @alice-kaye
That’s a huge list of plugins. My first thought is that the problem will be related to one of those. If that’s not the case, then the problem is likely to be your set-up. The easiest option in this case would be to set up a test site, activate all of those plugins and then do some testing to see if you can reproduce the problem.
@alice-kaye
I’m wondering if you set up BP pages correctly. (also because your previous questions on this forum)
your-site/activity/
your-site/groups/
your-site/members/
your-site/forums/
are not existing and /page/ in above urls are always removed, without 404 error.
Do you use specific rewrite rules ? Maybe control All in one SEO settings and theme settings
Hi @danbp
I have a specific plugin that is blocking those pages, unless you’re a member of the site itself, so those are not supposed to show to the average user.
Someone on the official WP forums said that maybe it was a re-write error that is happening in the .htaccess file and so he told me to download that, and then when it messes up again with the Page Not Found alert, to then download the .htaccess file again and compare the two, to see if it’s re-writing oddly. If so, then he directed me to adjust it to 444, rather than 644 (though I am unsure of what issues could arise from that).
Do you think that perhaps the plugin I’m using, to block those several pages, could be causing the issue?
Also, I’ve always found it odd but, if you go to my forums (as a member) and go to any of the topics within, the URL is odd, always has been through three installs: http://www.heartwoodgaming.com/forums/forum/bulletin-board/general-banter/
I’ve always wondered if it’s normal that it says /forums/forum/?
Anyhow, thank you for the message! Hoping I can get to the bottom of this nightmare.
Do you think that perhaps the plugin I’m using, to block those several pages, could be causing the issue?
Is there any way you can disable it to see if the problem resolves?
I’ve always wondered if it’s normal that it says /forums/forum/?
example.com/forums/forum/ is quite normal. I’m not hugely familiar with bbPress but I think there’s an option in the back-end to disable the base slug if you wish:
example.com/forum/
Ooofff, as mentioned above, that is a HUGE list of plug-ins.
I’m not surprised that something is conflicting as you have a few things there that could be altering rewrite rules.
Your best bet is to disable all the other plug ins and see if if BP works after a permalink update. If so then you’re gonna have to start reactivating the plug-ins one at a time until the issue arises again.
Just in case you do lose access to update your permalink structure from the admin panel you can always do it via the database :
http://wordpress.stackexchange.com/questions/58625/where-is-permalink-info-stored-in-database
Hope you find your solution!
Ooofff, as mentioned above, that is a HUGE list of plug-ins.
Not really that big of a list 26, ive had a site running 75 plugins efficiently, the key is to doing this is of course trial and error and working out what plugins don’t clash with others etc and try to stay away from real heavy plugins, also can be very time consuming figuring out the correct way to concatenate all the javascripts and css from all the plugins efficiently enough to not slow everything down to a crawl and without breaking everything, this is all trial and error yet again, but believe me it can be done!
Yeah true, I’ve just always tried to steer away from using ready made plug-ins wherever possible. Most things can be done with a few lines of code in your functions.php file.
Saying that there are some on that list that most certainly are brilliant and required but the one that is confusing me is :
WP Symposium Toolbar
I thought WP Symposium was a rival social platform plug in to BP?
I can’t imagine they are going to play nicely together although i’m not speaking from experience so could be totally wrong.
@alice-kaye btw i once had a similar issue with permalinks keep messing up and it turned out the permalink structure used in 2 of my plugins was the same causing them to clash, this would happen intermittently just like you are saying although the 2 plugins wasn’t on your list.
If i remember it was caused by 2 separate plugins that both used events as a permalink.
@mcpeanut
Not really that big of a list 26, ive had a site running 75 plugins efficiently
That’s the highest number I’ve heard of 🙂 But, if things run smoothly then why not! 😀
I found out that the plugin blocking those pages from public view, is out of date and it seems it’s working (or tested) up to 3.9.2, so that could be the cause of some of my issues, though I am unsure.
I’m trying to figure out how to go on without the plugin because it helps me moderate the new users (i.e. they cannot access the content until they’ve been approved). Does anyone know of an up-to-date plugin that allows for this same ability (even if it doesn’t block those pages from view)?
@mrgiblets – Thank you so much for that link, that will come in handy if ever it happens again. It was rather terrifying to be locked out.
@henrywright – Thank you! I saw that option, but wasn’t sure what it would do if I turned it off, I’ll test that.
@mcpeanut – Glad to hear it can be done. The scary part is, my site is 100% live, so doing testing is always scary for me because if something goes wrong, I have a ton of people who see it going wrong (and then my Skype blows up). The bigger issue is, I couldn’t have tested this on a non-live site, because the error seems to occur with usage, but I can’t be 100% sure of that either. Seems that if I save the permalink structure, that in about two days, the errors creep back in.
And thus, the testing continues…
Thank you for all of your replies, thoughts and ideas. 🙂
@mrgiblets – I’m not sure on the WP Symposium Toolbar front. All it seems to do is add additional functionality to the top toolbar, to allow additional linkage and whatnot. I’m not sure if it could be the culprit. It seems damn near anything could be at this point!
@mcpeanut – I do have DP Pro Event Calendar (purchased from CodeCanyon.com). Do you know of a way to specifically see all of the slugs on a site to make sure nothing is duplicate? If not, that will take a while to track through all of them to see if that’s maybe the cause…
@henrywright mate im not saying that amount should be used without great caution because its not just about running 75 plugins as we know, its also aboutbeing able to update without problems too etc, the configuration i had at that time was 6 months solid work to get them all working together and as fast as i could it meant alot of dequeuing scripts and styles and ALOT! of trial and error to get them combined without breaking lots of things first 🙂
@alice-kaye i really would research into making a testing environment and making a mirror of your live site for testing everything.
@alice-kaye sorry i missed this question while i was typing the above,
I do have DP Pro Event Calendar (purchased from CodeCanyon.com). Do you know of a way to specifically see all of the slugs on a site to make sure nothing is duplicate? If not, that will take a while to track through all of them to see if that’s maybe the cause…
tbh it was doing my head in for ages when it happened and i just couldnt pinpoint it for ages then something just clicked one day when i realized that they was both using the same permalink structure, then it was a sort of DOH! slap my head moment lol
@mcpeanut good point. I think < 10 is a manageable number when it comes to updating. As you say, when you go above that number, you run the risk of bringing on a headache when it’s time to upgrade WP. Also, until WP bumps the required version of PHP to 5.3+ and namespacing becomes available, function naming collisions is another problem because some plugins use common prefixes.
@mcpeanut
I think it’s entirely possible that something is using the same permalink structure. I have a bunch of gw2 and ffxiv slugs, which when I write one, I always try to add something like gw2-events, ffxiv-pictures, or something so that they aren’t exactly the same. Now I’m wondering if I’ve missed one.
@alice-kaye Yes your are probably right, I had a look at the plug in and it doesn’t look like it’s doing anything that should conflict with BP.
I’m not sure how much you know about the WP databse so, just in case you need to start messing around in your db (for the permalink issue) :
1) I assume you’ll be using something like phpMyAdmin
2) The first thing you should do once you’re in your WP database is export a back up in case it all goes bananas.
3) Make sure you are in the actual database and not a table.
4) Hit the “Export” button in the top menu.
5) Make sure “Quick – display only the minimal options” is selected.
6) Click “Go” and save it to your computer.
If you do end up messing something up you can rescue the entire thing by doing the following :
1) Top level again
2) Click “Import” (top menu)
3) Click “Browse” and locate your downloaded .sql file (It will be the name of your database, the same name you set in your WP Config file) with .sql on the end.
4) Make sure Format is set to SQL
5) Make sure “Do not use AUTO_INCREMENT for zero values” is checked
6) Hit “Go” and depending on the size of your db it should all be back as it was.
Very good practice to back up your DB every now and again anyway.
I actually use a bash script to back up my db’s every week automatically and download them locally onto my home computer just in case I ever forget to do it. That way I have a nice archive of backups all dated so I can roll back the db to how it was on any of those dates if I have to 😉
@mrgiblets
I always try to do a backup of it, whenever I know I’m going to be messing with something that could be detrimental. I can navigate around a WP DB pretty well, but making modifications by writing the MySQL is not something I have experience with, though I know how to add MySQL if the code is provided to me, the same goes for any PHP. I can’t write it, but I can add it and understand how it operates (though I’ve written a chunk of it myself recently and felt pretty proud haha – this project has taught me a lot).
I’ll make sure to start backing up the database weekly, which will definitely help with any issues that could crop up in the future.
i really would research into making a testing environment and making a mirror of your live site for testing everything.
Couldn’t agree with that more!
Get a MAMP or WAMP (if you’re on PC) on the firm.
That way you can break it as often as you like and nobody but you will ever know 😉
@alice-kaye No need to run complicated SQL queries 😉
1) Click on the wp_options table
2) Click on Search at the top
3) Enter “permalink_structure” into the option_name value box
4) Click “Go”
5) You will see your permalink structure eg : /%postname/% in the option_value field
6) Click on it and put your new one in there or leave it blank for the WP default one.
7) Hit enter! Done!
😉
@alice-kaye just searching around and the clash i was getting at the time was similar to this and was caused by the same plugin https://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-causes-permalink-clash im not really sure how helpfull this will be if at all, this is to show you permalink issues caused by plugins crossing wires so to speak can happen, i’m not saying that this is even your problem its just a suggestion based upon what happened to myself in the past. it could be something totally different for you and troubleshooting it on a live site may be difficult.
@mrgiblets
No need to run complicated SQL queries 😉
1) Click on the wp_options table
2) Click on Search at the top
3) Enter “permalink_structure” into the option_name value box
4) Click “Go”
5) You will see your permalink structure eg : /%postname/% in the option_value field
6) Click on it and put your new one in there or leave it blank for the WP default one.
7) Hit enter! Done!
I’m not entirely sure I’m following on this one. I get how to get to there and whatnot, but is this basically just to re-save in the event of issues again in the future (where I can’t log in)? If so, perfect, glad to know how to get there quickly! 🙂
@mcpeanut – “custom post type ui” – Do you know if that addon allows you to see all the ones currently on your site, or is it to only add/moderate ones you add via the plugin? I’d love to see if there are any duplicates.
So it just happened again on one of my main pages. It seems that if I deactivate any plugin, it refreshes the permalinks or something, because the page comes back immediately after I deactivate a plugin and refresh the page.
This is going to make it much harder to identify the plugin.
I think permalink settings are refreshed automatically when activating / deactivating any plug-in in WP.
Sometimes this doesn’t work properly and you have to do it manually, you’ve probably experienced that at some point?
I’d personally start by picking a dead time of night when there are unlikely to be any (or at least not many) users on the site and start by deactivating the following one by one :
Akismet
All in One SEO Pack
bbP private groups
Contact Form 7
DP Pro Event Calendar
Link Library
If I had to take a random shot in the dark guess on what is causing problems I’d put my money on Akismet & AIO SEO Pack. I very much doubt that these plug-ins are causing the issues by themselves, but one of the others is probably conflicting with them.
Disabling each of these in turn will at least give you a starting point to debug from if things start working again when they are deactivated.
Hi @mrgiblets
Thanks for the follow-up response. I’m going through and disabling these one-by-one as the issue rears it’s ugly face again. So far, I’ve turned off AiOSP and Akismet (the most recent turn off). Contact Form 7 has been off for about a week at this point.
We shall see what happens next!
I’ve also tried this other thing: https://wordpress.org/support/topic/no-results-found-permalink-issue?replies=6
But alas, nothing resulted from this. For some reason when I went in to CHMOD it back to 644 this morning (I changed it to 444 yesterday), it was mysteriously set back to the default 644 already. Not sure what to make of that.
It has been quite an uphill battle for me with this, but I believe that I have finally found the offending plugin. Thank you @mrgiblets for your last suggestion. I began going through and turning off each of those plugins in your mini list, just to see if we got anywhere.
bbP private groups seems to be having a major conflict with my site, rendering those posts as 404’s. I’ve had it turned off since Thursday or Friday and so far, I haven’t had an issue arise since. I’ve turned back on Akismet and All in One SEO and so far, so good. I’m incredibly hopeful that I’ve found my solution.
