Title: Persistent 404 error after changing permalinks setting Last modified: August 20, 2016 --- # Persistent 404 error after changing permalinks setting * Resolved [wpbaby](https://wordpress.org/support/users/wpbaby/) * (@wpbaby) * [14 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/persistent-404-error-after-changing-permalinks-setting/) * Hello all, * For one of my websites, I tried this morning (to change the default/stock permalink settings) to the one shown below (which I found at this link => [http://theseoblogger.com/seo-blogs/wordpress/wordpress-seo-tutorial-permalink-structure/](http://theseoblogger.com/seo-blogs/wordpress/wordpress-seo-tutorial-permalink-structure/) and lo and behold…after I clicked the [Save] button, I can no longer access any portion of my site….not even the “Permalink Settings” page, which I would need to access in order to try some of the suggestions put out to help resolve this problem. * /%category%/%postname%/ * I thought that installing version 3.2.1 over my existing 3.1.3 installation would fix the problem…but that didn’t do anything either. * What do I do next? Is there something that can/must be done in the MySQL db that can/will fix this? I’ve done a fair amount of work on the site and I really don’t want to lose (or have to re-do anything). * Any and all help is much appreciated. * Thanks Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total) * [shawnetteh](https://wordpress.org/support/users/shawnetteh/) * (@shawnetteh) * [14 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/persistent-404-error-after-changing-permalinks-setting/#post-2428381) * j’ai le même probléme mais lorsque les utilisateur du blog veulent aller sur un commentaire récent ils ont ‘erreur 404″ j’aimerai aussi comprendre POURQUOI???? * [Daemus](https://wordpress.org/support/users/daemus/) * (@daemus) * [14 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/persistent-404-error-after-changing-permalinks-setting/#post-2428394) * My best guess would be a lack of mod_rewrite. If you don’t know what that is, contact your web host. Their support staff should be able to tell you whether you have it available or not. If your server doesn’t have it, hopefully that is your problem and they can get it set up for you so things start working. * [Using_Permalinks](http://codex.wordpress.org/Using_Permalinks) * > Pretty permalinks are available under: > Apache web server with the mod_rewrite module > Microsoft IIS 7+ web server > with the URL Rewrite 1.1+ module and PHP 5 running as FastCGI Microsoft IIS > 6+ using ASAPI_Rewrite Lighttpd using a 404 handler or mod_rewrite * You should also make sure that you have a .htaccess file and that WordPress has permissions to write to it. * The following should be in your .htaccess file, as of 3.0+ * > # BEGIN WordPress > RewriteEngine On RewriteBase / > RewriteRule ^index\.php$ – [L] RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f RewriteCond%{ > REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d RewriteRule . /index.php [L] # END WordPress * Thread Starter [wpbaby](https://wordpress.org/support/users/wpbaby/) * (@wpbaby) * [14 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/persistent-404-error-after-changing-permalinks-setting/#post-2428401) * Okay, so I fixed my own problem as follows: * First, I went into my MySQL database (using PHYMyAdmin) and brought up the table named “wp_options” in Browse mode. Went to page 2 (of the field listings), and changed the value of field number 31 – “permalink structure” from “/%category%/% postname%/” to “/%year%/%postname%/” and saved the change. * I then went to my remote site, and using FileZilla (my FTP program) I deleted the entire website folder. Now, luckily I wise enough to have taken a local HDD backup of the entire folder, before I decided to try and resolve the problem by overwriting the version 3.1.3 files with version 3.2.1. So, I copied the local HDD backup back to my remote site and what do you think? I was back up and running… and had pretty links as well! * [@daemus](https://wordpress.org/support/users/daemus/)…thanks for your post/suggestion anyways 🙂 I had already tried what you suggested and that was all fine…including the content of the .htaccess file. * Hope this helps somebody else, if faced with a similar situation. * [Daemus](https://wordpress.org/support/users/daemus/) * (@daemus) * [14 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/persistent-404-error-after-changing-permalinks-setting/#post-2428517) * Glad to hear you got your problem figured out! * If all is well, please mark this as “resolved” so when others search for the same type of problem, they can quickly see your post and hopefully use your information to help them. Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total) The topic ‘Persistent 404 error after changing permalinks setting’ is closed to new replies. * In: [Fixing WordPress](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/how-to-and-troubleshooting/) * 4 replies * 3 participants * Last reply from: [Daemus](https://wordpress.org/support/users/daemus/) * Last activity: [14 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/persistent-404-error-after-changing-permalinks-setting/#post-2428517) * Status: resolved ## Topics ### Topics with no replies ### Non-support topics ### Resolved topics ### Unresolved topics ### All topics