Title: Permalink adding unwanted question mark Last modified: January 18, 2019 --- # Permalink adding unwanted question mark * Resolved [ringostar77](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ringostar77/) * (@ringostar77) * [7 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/permalink-adding-unwanted-question-mark/) * Hi there, * all of a sudden, my permalink structure %postname% ist not working anymore. It adds an unwanted question mark at the first position. So for example the url should be [https://www.url.com/test-site](https://www.url.com/test-site) but it is changed to [https://www.url.com/?test-site](https://www.url.com/?test-site). This causes a redirection to the home page. * So I have changed the permalink structure to ?p=123 for now and this seems to be working. * I am using WordPress 5.0.3 with the The7 theme on PHP 7.2.14 (Apache). Every plugin is up to date. Disabling all plugins and changing to default theme did not work either. - This topic was modified 7 years, 4 months ago by [ringostar77](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ringostar77/). * The page I need help with: _[[log in](https://login.wordpress.org/?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Fwordpress.org%2Fsupport%2Ftopic%2Fpermalink-adding-unwanted-question-mark%2F%3Foutput_format%3Dmd&locale=en_US) to see the link]_ Viewing 7 replies - 1 through 7 (of 7 total) * Moderator [t-p](https://wordpress.org/support/users/t-p/) * (@t-p) * [7 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/permalink-adding-unwanted-question-mark/#post-11105272) * > all of a sudden, my permalink structure %postname% ist not working anymore. * Why it’s not working? * Have a read of [Using_Permalinks ](http://codex.wordpress.org/Using_Permalinks) try a custom permalink structure again. If clearing your Permalinks does not alleviate the issue, this could be attributed to anything from a web server configuration to a bad WordPress install. * Thread Starter [ringostar77](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ringostar77/) * (@ringostar77) * [7 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/permalink-adding-unwanted-question-mark/#post-11107435) * I don’t know, why it is not working anymore because I haven’t changed anything the last time on the problematic website. * Yes, I have read that and changed permalink structure to custom as you said, but unfortunately without success. Absolutely no other structure is working anymore than ?page_id=X * Every other website on our server is working fine though. - This reply was modified 7 years, 4 months ago by [ringostar77](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ringostar77/). * [qroberts](https://wordpress.org/support/users/qroberts/) * (@qroberts) * [7 years, 1 month ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/permalink-adding-unwanted-question-mark/#post-11412349) * [@ringostar77](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ringostar77/) did you fix this afterwards? I have been experiencing this same issue since yesterday. When we try to go to [http://domain.tld/page](http://domain.tld/page) the URL is being changed to [http://domain.tld/?page](http://domain.tld/?page) adding a ? in the URL and not loading the correct page. I checked the permalinks section (/wp-admin/ options-permalink.php) in the settings and it is set to ‘Post name’. What else could be adding the ? to the URL? * Thread Starter [ringostar77](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ringostar77/) * (@ringostar77) * [7 years, 1 month ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/permalink-adding-unwanted-question-mark/#post-11412379) * [@qroberts](https://wordpress.org/support/users/qroberts/) I fixed it. There was a misconfiguration on some domains in plesk. I was using nginx and with some custom redirect rules. These rules were causing the issue :/ * [organu](https://wordpress.org/support/users/organu/) * (@organu) * [7 years, 1 month ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/permalink-adding-unwanted-question-mark/#post-11417003) * [@ringostar77](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ringostar77/) Hi can you explain what you did? I have similar issue on a plesk environment and i’m new to this. Thank you * [qroberts](https://wordpress.org/support/users/qroberts/) * (@qroberts) * [7 years, 1 month ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/permalink-adding-unwanted-question-mark/#post-11417023) * [@organu](https://wordpress.org/support/users/organu/) [@ringostar77](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ringostar77/) we are also using Plesk. I checked our .htaccess files and they look good for WordPress. I also disabled every Plugin and the question mark is still getting prefixed to our URL’s. * Our permalink settings (wp-admin/options-permalink.php) are set to use Post name. If I change this to Plain the website works as the question mark is needed anyways for the URL ?p=123 or ?=page_id=123 but with Plain you do not use question marks. * In Plesk when I go to the section where the domain is, under “Apache & nginx Settings”, I have the following settings: * MIME types: default Handlers: Default Deny access to the site: Default Index files: Default Expires: Default Additional Headers: Default Restrict the ability to follow symbolic links: not enabled Proxy mode: Enabled Smart static file processing: Enabled Serve static files directly by nginx: not enabled Enable nginx caching: not enabled * [seravee](https://wordpress.org/support/users/seravee/) * (@seravee) * [6 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/permalink-adding-unwanted-question-mark/#post-11729597) * I just want to bring up this to help you guys how to fix it. * You don’t need to restore your web files or database. Also no need to workaround related permalinks settings. This issue only related for those who use Plesk control panel only. * Go to your control panel, on “Apache & nginx Settings” section, make sure everything revert back to default. * On “Hosting Settings” section, under “Web scripting and statistics” section take a look PHP version of your website and run PHP as xxxx. Change run PHP as xxx from previous one to another. ie. I have previously FastCGI application serverd by Apache. Now change it to another else, ie. FPM application served by nginx. * Done. Viewing 7 replies - 1 through 7 (of 7 total) The topic ‘Permalink adding unwanted question mark’ is closed to new replies. * In: [Fixing WordPress](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/how-to-and-troubleshooting/) * 7 replies * 5 participants * Last reply from: [seravee](https://wordpress.org/support/users/seravee/) * Last activity: [6 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/permalink-adding-unwanted-question-mark/#post-11729597) * Status: resolved ## Topics ### Topics with no replies ### Non-support topics ### Resolved topics ### Unresolved topics ### All topics