Change the permissions on your .htaccess file to 666 or 777. Update your permalinks, then change the permissions back to 644. And I emphasize, change them back to 644, when you are done.
I can’t access the .htaaccess file (I blog for a newspaper, so they’re hosting the blog.) What I get when I change the link structure is this:
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /(Blog name removed)
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /(blog name removed)/index.php [L]
</IfModule>
Am I able to make a change by altering this?
That would be the contents of the .htaccess file that WordPress is trying to write out. It is giving you the code you need to copy and paste into .htaccess because it (WordPress) does not have sufficient permissions to re-write the file itself. It is making the assumption that you will be editing the file via FTP at that point. It sounds like you may need to get the IT admin involved for a few minutes in order to update the permalinks.
I am having the same problem; however I don’t see an .htaccess file anywhere on my web server. Do I need to create one? Thanks.