Title: 404 not loading
Last modified: August 18, 2016

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# 404 not loading

 *  [cvltvs](https://wordpress.org/support/users/cvltvs/)
 * (@cvltvs)
 * [18 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/404-not-loading/)
 * The 404 page of my template does not load. The code instructs it to get the header,
   footer etc., and leave an instruction for the user to “Use the search feature
   to find what you’re looking for or use the contact page.” with links to the Search
   and Contact features. But when I deliberately hit a 404, say at [http://www.cvltvs.com/asdf](http://www.cvltvs.com/asdf)
   I get a white page that says the page is not found on the server, as you can 
   see. No theme and no customisation.
 * I have read the codex regarding custom and creation of 404s, but that doesn’t
   help. The server isn’t going to my 404 page at all. I don’t have access to the
   server itself as I’m using a host, so I can’t access the .htaccess files. I’ve
   also searched through this forum, but none of the advice given to others helps
   me out.
 * Any ideas anyone?

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)

 *  [jeeremie](https://wordpress.org/support/users/jeeremie/)
 * (@jeeremie)
 * [17 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/404-not-loading/#post-605834)
 * Same here.
 * Could someone answer?
 *  [jeeremie](https://wordpress.org/support/users/jeeremie/)
 * (@jeeremie)
 * [17 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/404-not-loading/#post-605835)
 * Actually, if I type [http://www.mysite.com/page-dont-exist.html](http://www.mysite.com/page-dont-exist.html),
   it will display this message:
 * > **Not Found**
   > The requested URL /page-dont-exist.html was not found on this server.
 * but if I type [http://www.mysite.com/index.php/page-dont-exist.html](http://www.mysite.com/index.php/page-dont-exist.html),
   it works! I am redirected to my custom 404.php page (where I have added a search
   form, categories, most popular posts…).
 * So the question is how to make sure visitors are being redirected to my custom
   404 error page no matter what. Should I create a .htaccess, and if yes, how?
 * Any ideas?
 *  [jeeremie](https://wordpress.org/support/users/jeeremie/)
 * (@jeeremie)
 * [17 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/404-not-loading/#post-605836)
 * I found the solution. We need to add the following line to .htaccess:
 * `ErrorDocument 404 /index.php`
 * That’s all. It seems to work fine.
 * /index.php is the relative path to your wordpress. If it doesn’t find a page 
   or post, it redirects you custom error page (404.php) in your wordpress theme.
 * If, like me you, don’t know much about how to create custom error pages, you 
   should check this website [http://www.4webhelp.net](http://www.4webhelp.net/tutorials/misc/errors.php).
   It is an excellent article about “Creating Custom Error Messages in Apache”.
 * Also check [http://www.alistapart.com/articles/perfect404/](http://www.alistapart.com/articles/perfect404/).
   They give some good tips.

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)

The topic ‘404 not loading’ is closed to new replies.

## Tags

 * [custom](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/custom/)
 * [not-loading](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/not-loading/)
 * [template](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/template/)

 * 3 replies
 * 2 participants
 * Last reply from: [jeeremie](https://wordpress.org/support/users/jeeremie/)
 * Last activity: [17 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/404-not-loading/#post-605836)
 * Status: not resolved

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