Title: Will changing permalink structure create 404’s
Last modified: December 2, 2022

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# Will changing permalink structure create 404’s

 *  [larklibby](https://wordpress.org/support/users/larklibby/)
 * (@larklibby)
 * [3 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/will-changing-permalink-structure-create-404s/)
 * Hey
 * Quick question.
 * I currently have a blog with around 200 posts. I’m wanting to change the structure
   of the post urls to: category/postname.
 * It’s currently just: /postname.
 * So, I know how to change it, but my question is will the old url (/postname) 
   automatically redirect to the new url structure /category/postname if I change
   it?
 * Or will it create 404’s that need a redirect?
 * Thanks,
    Karl

Viewing 1 replies (of 1 total)

 *  [Jason LeMahieu (MadtownLems)](https://wordpress.org/support/users/madtownlems/)
 * (@madtownlems)
 * [3 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/will-changing-permalink-structure-create-404s/#post-16255574)
 * The answer is actually something in the middle.
 * WordPress won’t keep a backlog of all the different permalinks you’ve used for
   posts and redirect them for you.
 * However, WordPress tries to be smart when figuring out what someone is trying
   to access. If the post name matches, it will likely be able to find them and 
   serve them up as intended. Unfortunately the specific nature of if it will work
   for you depends on all your other rewrite rules (from themes and plugins), so
   I can’t give you a definitive answer. I’d encourage you to back up your site,
   and test it out. You can always flip it back 🙂

Viewing 1 replies (of 1 total)

The topic ‘Will changing permalink structure create 404’s’ is closed to new replies.

 * In: [Fixing WordPress](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/how-to-and-troubleshooting/)
 * 1 reply
 * 2 participants
 * Last reply from: [Jason LeMahieu (MadtownLems)](https://wordpress.org/support/users/madtownlems/)
 * Last activity: [3 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/will-changing-permalink-structure-create-404s/#post-16255574)
 * Status: not resolved

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