Custom post types permalinks all mixed up!

Hello all,

I’m in a pickle, I hope someone here can help me because I’m out of ideas. I downloaded the Custom Post Types UI (CPT UI) plugin, which is awesome. But I found an issue where I couldn’t get the post type slug out of the URL. So I downloaded a plugin called “Custom Post Types Permalinks” (https://ww.wp.xz.cn/plugins/custom-post-permalinks/) and that was cool because it let me add my CPT UI taxonomies to the URL. But it didn’t have the option to get rid of the CPT slug from the URL.

So I found a THIRD plugin, and I knew it was a bad idea to download it because it hadn’t been updated in over two years and everyone in the Support forum had the same issue with 404’s (https://ww.wp.xz.cn/plugins/remove-slug-from-custom-post-type/). This got rid of the CPT slug, (yay) but it caused a 404 (boo). I don’t know why and no one else ever got any help. So I deleted via FTP both the “Custom Post Types Permalinks” plugin and the “Remove slug from custom post type” plugin, reset the permalinks. I updated the permalinks settings to what they had been before the plugins existed (Custom Structure: /news/%category%/%postname%/). But I am still getting a 404 on all of my CPTs.

So a part of me suspects that this awful outdated plugin is still somehow effecting my site. Is that even possible? Another part of me suspects I messed something up. I could reset my dev site (thankfully this was all on a dev site!) and lose my work and start over (I’m willing to do this if it’s the only option) but if this plugin is still effecting the site somehow in my database or something then that won’t help.

And after I fix this, I’m still back in the same boat – the CPT slug will still be in the URL! Halp!

Thank you in advance for any advice!