10 Solutions on How to fix 404 page not found

Are you seeing a 404 page not found error when you visit a website? This can be frustrating, but there are some simple steps on how to fix 404 page not found. In this blog post, we’ll walk you through how to fix a 404 page not found error.

How to fix 404 page not found if you are a visitor:

1. Check the URL

   To answer How to fix 404 page not found, First, check the URL of the page you’re trying to visit. If the URL is incorrect, you’ll see a 404 page not found error. Make sure you’re using the correct URL, and then try again.

2. Is it really 404 or 301?

   Second, check to see if the page has been moved or deleted. If the page has been moved, you’ll see a 301 redirect. If the page has been deleted, you’ll see a 410 error or 404 page not found error.

3. Clear cache and cookies

   Third, try clearing your browser’s cache and cookies. This can help if the page you’re trying to visit has been cached by your browser.

4. Use Different Browser

   Fourth, try using a different browser. If you’re using a web browser like Google Chrome, try opening the page in a different browser like Mozilla Firefox.

5. Contact the owner

   Finally, contact the website’s owner and let them know about the problem. They may be able to help you fix the issue. Since they are the owner and if the problem is on their side, as a visitor, you can not do anything for fixing, only the developer can help on answering the “how to fix 404 page not found.”

If the above solutions still did not work and you can not contact the website’s developer or owner, it’s possible that the website’s owner deliberately deleted the page that you are looking for. In this case, you can not do anything except for contacting the owner of the website.

Another scenario is when the owner relocated the page and forgot to redirect the users to a new webpage. If this is the case, you can search the same keywords on google and check if there is a new webpage indexed on google. If you can’t find any, it’s possible that the certain webpage is not yet indexed on google or the developer disabled the search engine indexing.

You can also try other search engine to check the keywords like for example: Bing, DuckDuckGo, or Yahoo! Lastly, as a website visitor, check if the solutions above help you answer your question “How to fix 404 page not found.”

How to fix 404 page not found for developers:

What if you are the developer or you own the website that has the 404 page not found error? It would be better to debug it by yourself depending on the Content Management System (CMS) that you are using. However, since this website exists to help developers, I will state some general solutions on how to fix 404 page not found.

1. Update your permalink

   If you are using WordPress, you might be familiar with the permalink. The permalink is the full URL of a webpage. If you are seeing 404 page not found, then you might alter the URL’s path or the text on URL after the domain. For example:
   https://techtrim.tech/7-best-laptops-for-programming-under-1000/
   The highlighted texts above the the URL’s path, you might altered it causing the certain webpage to show 404 page not found.

2. Check the existence of .htaccess file

   If you are using Apache, then you need an .htaccess file. Disregard this if you are using Nginx. Login to your Cpanel or FTP first and make sure that you enable the visibility of hidden files because files beginning with dot are usually considered as hidden files by our computer. If you enabled it but still can’t see the .htaccess file, then upload the .htaccess contents below if you are using WordPress:

   # BEGIN WordPress
   RewriteEngine On
   RewriteRule .* - [E=HTTP_AUTHORIZATION:%{HTTP:Authorization}]
   RewriteBase /
   RewriteRule ^index\.php$ - [L]
   RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
   RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
   RewriteRule . /index.php [L]
   # END WordPress

3. Setup 301 Redirection

   If you changed the URL of a certain page and you don’t redirect it to a new page, then if you access the old page, it will return a 404 page not found error. To fix this, you need to redirect your old webpage to new webpage URL. If you are using Apache, you can set up redirect by adding this to your .htaccess file:

   Redirect 301 /oldpage.php https://example.com/newpage.php

   If you are using wordpress and you can not do htaccess redirect above because you are also using nginx web server, then just install a wordpress plugin to handle redirection.
   – Install the Redirection Plugin.
   – On your WordPress Dashboard, go to Tools then Redirection.
   – Set it up then Add a new redirection.

4. Disable Plugins/Themes

   If you are using wordpress, try debugging it by disabling some themes and plugins. These might create conflicts on your websites that can cause 404 page not found error especially if you are using outdated or faulty plugins or themes. That being said, make sure that all of your plugins and themes are updated to the latest versions.Also try to check if there are also people experiencing the same problem as you, by going to the plugin or theme support.For example, if you would like to check Rank Math SEO plugin support discussions, go to your WordPress Installed Plugins Page, then click on “View Details” as shown on the image below.

   

   After that, you can click on WordPress.org Plugin Page » as shown on the image below.

   

   Finally, you can click on Support Tab and you can see there the users complaints and other discussions about the specific WordPress plugin. You can also post a thread there and discuss the issue that you are experiencing if you think their plugin is causing the 404 not found error as it is a forum dedicated for that specific wordpress plugin.

   Note that the Rank Math SEO plugin above is just an example, you can also check the support on other wordpress plugins. Just ask if other users also experiencing the issue and also ask on how to fix 404 page not found.

5. Identify previous changes

   As a developer or owner of that website, you are in control of your website’s changes. So you need to contemplate the previous changes that you have done on your website. If you have done something recently, try reverting it back to its original state and see if it is the issue.

   If you have not done anything and there are other people who have access to your website, try asking them if they modify something on your website, then revert the changes back to normal and check if it fixes the issue. After all, if the problem is on the website’s side, only you, the developer or owner of that website can find how to fix 404 page not found.

   If the solutions and guides here have not still solve your problem, then as a developer you might know what is stackoverflow forum. Try posting a thread there discussing the issue on How to fix 404 page not found. If they rejected, downvoted, and closed your thread, maybe because your thread’s contents is too vague, like just asking “how to fix 404 page not found” is obviously not enough, you can ask the similar question (How to fix 404 page not found) on Facebook groups, reddit, and etc.

Conclusion

I hope the guides in this blog helps you on your “how to fix 404 page not found” question. I have also redirected the 404 page on my website to this blog, so if you were redirected here out of nowhere, then the webpage that you want to access is probably gone now, as what I have written on the blog above.

If this blog helps you or if you have a friend or a person that you just know who is experiencing the same problem or has this question in their mind “How to fix 404 page not found”, you can share this blog post to them. Thank you!