How to Fix Broken WordPress Permalinks

If your WordPress pages and posts are returning 404 errors even though they exist, you likely have a broken permalink structure. This is a very common issue and usually quick to resolve on dotCanada hosting.

Step 1: Re-save Your Permalink Settings

The simplest fix is to flush your rewrite rules by re-saving your permalink settings:

1. Log in to your WordPress admin dashboard
2. Go to Settings > Permalinks
3. Without changing anything, click Save Changes

This forces WordPress to regenerate the rewrite rules in your .htaccess file. In most cases, this is all you need to do.

Step 2: Check Your .htaccess File

If re-saving didn't work, connect via FTP and check your .htaccess file in the site root. It should contain a WordPress block that looks like this:

• # BEGIN WordPress
• RewriteEngine rules
• # END WordPress

If this block is missing or corrupted, try renaming your .htaccess to .htaccess_old and then re-saving permalinks in WordPress to generate a fresh one.

Step 3: Verify mod_rewrite Is Enabled

Pretty permalinks require Apache's mod_rewrite module. On dotCanada's LiteSpeed-powered servers, URL rewriting is fully supported. If you're seeing persistent 404s, contact our support team and we'll check the server configuration for your account.