Wordpress 3.1 - Site breaks when I change permalink settings

Essien

I'm currently putting together a Wordpress site locally on WAMP and every time I change the permalink settings from default all my links break.

How do I fix this? I don't want all my pages having numeric page id's.

Trojan

Is your WAMP definitely using Apache as the server? Just wondering if the .htaccess you're generating is compatible with the server. Can you paste the contents of the .htaccess file?

Essien

# BEGIN WordPress
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]
</IfModule>

# END WordPress

I've also enabled the rewrite_module in Apache, which a bit of googling tells me I should do.

cormee

Also make sure you have your trailing slash at the end of your custom url structure (if you're using a custom url that is)

Essien

cormee wrote: »

Also make sure you have your trailing slash at the end of your custom url structure (if you're using a custom url that is)

I'm trying to use the second format...

[COLOR=#333333]http://localhost/wordpress/2011/08/16/sample-post/[/COLOR]

Essien

What is also happening when I set it to the desired format is when I visit a broken* link, the url appears exactly the way I would want it to, except the browser shows the index page. This happens when I have the .htaccess file in the site root, but when I remove it it shows me a "file not found" error.

*All links seem to be broken under this setting, not just the ones Wordpress generates for my nav menu.

FTR - I don't have a clue about servers or .htaccess or anything like that, if that wasn't already evident.

cormee

Essien wrote: »

What is also happening when I set it to the desired format is when I visit a broken* link, the url appears exactly the way I would want it to, except the browser shows the index page. This happens when I have the .htaccess file in the site root, but when I remove it it shows me a "file not found" error.

*All links seem to be broken under this setting, not just the ones Wordpress generates for my nav menu.

FTR - I don't have a clue about servers or .htaccess or anything like that, if that wasn't already evident.

Have you tried it with any other structures, month & name, numeric? Does it work?

Are you updating your .htaccess file when you change the structure?

The behaviour of the second sentence in your fist paragraph is normal.

Essien

cormee wrote: »

Have you tried it with any other structures, month & name, numeric? Does it work?

Yes, I have tried them all, even the custom one. The links break on everything except the default setting.

cormee wrote: »

Are you updating your .htaccess file when you change the structure?

Well I'm not doing anything manually if that's what you mean. I was under the impression that switching on the rewrite thing in apache would allow Wordpress to change these settings automatically (if required) as I make the changes in the Wordpress panel. Again, I'm blissfully ignorant on any server issues, so I could be way off. And don't rule out the probability that I might be missing something very simple

cormee

Essien wrote: »

Yes, I have tried them all, even the custom one. The links break on everything except the default setting.

Well I'm not doing anything manually if that's what you mean. I was under the impression that switching on the rewrite thing in apache would allow Wordpress to change these settings automatically (if required) as I make the changes in the Wordpress panel. Again, I'm blissfully ignorant on any server issues, so I could be way off. And don't rule out the probability that I might be missing something very simple

It should update the .htaccess file, and going by your description it doesn't sound like a .htaccess issue, but for the sake of eliminating possible causes it would be no harm to download the file and compare it to the file listed at the bottom of your settings>permalink settings page.

For troubleshooting you can also try disabling all your plugins, then test, and install a new theme, then test

Essien

Also, I switched back to the TwentyTen theme and still had the same issue.

Essien

The Wordpress site says....

If .htaccess is writeable, you will get a message that says "Permalink structure updated." You're all set; WordPress has been able to do everything for you automatically.

This is what appears when I update the permalinks, does this mean it's not a .htaccess issue?

cormee

Essien wrote: »

The Wordpress site says....

This is what appears when I update the permalinks, does this mean it's not a .htaccess issue?

Not possible to say for sure without comparing the files, that's why I told you to do that. Also did you switch off all plugins?

Essien

cormee wrote: »

Not possible to say for sure without comparing the files, that's why I told you to do that. Also did you switch off all plugins?

It worked after I switched off my plugins. There was one that I installed earlier to try to fix this before I added the .htaccess file, it was still active, I forgot all about it. It must have been the culprit.
Thanks.

Trojan

Thanks for updating us - this was puzzling me quite a bit

cormee

Trojan wrote: »

Thanks for updating us - this was puzzling me quite a bit

Quite strange alright.

What plugin was it Essien?

Essien

cormee wrote: »

Quite strange alright.

What plugin was it Essien?

Something called....Permalink Fix & Disable Canonical Redirects Pack
It was the very first thing I tried and subsequently forgot to disable it . I came across it on the Wordpress site, it was suggested as a solution to a problem which seemed similar to my own.

I presume it was the problem as everything worked fine when I disabled it.

Trojan

Yeah that would have been a prime candidate to consider alright

Essien

So now my site is uploaded and I am getting a blank screen

The url is displayed correctly, I'm not getting any errors, the Admin Panel is working fine, all posts & pages seem to be in the right place.

Where should I start looking?

Also I got a few errors last night when I was importing the database from WAMP which seem to be all cleared up now, if there was any issue with my db would I be getting errors here? Can I assume my db is fine?

Edit: I THINK I might have it sorted