Cannot fully disable Rank Math Sitemaps – still redirected to homepage

Hello,

We apologize for the issue you are facing with the Rank Math sitemaps still redirecting to the homepage even after deactivating the module. Thank you for providing detailed information about the steps you’ve already taken.

To completely remove or unregister Rank Math’s sitemap rewrites and filters, you can try the following steps:

1. Check for Hardcoded Redirects: Sometimes, themes or other plugins may have hardcoded redirects. Ensure that your theme or any other active plugins are not causing these redirects.

2. Flush Rewrite Rules: You mentioned that you’ve already flushed rewrite rules, but it’s worth trying again after making sure that the sitemap module is disabled. You can do this by going to Settings → Permalinks in your WordPress dashboard and simply clicking Save Changes.

3. Custom Code: If the above steps do not resolve the issue, you can add a custom code snippet to your theme’s functions.php file to unregister the sitemap functionality. Here’s a code snippet you can use:

   add_action( 'init', function() {
      remove_action( 'template_redirect', 'rank_math_sitemap' );
   });

   This code will help in removing the Rank Math sitemap action from being executed.

4. Check .htaccess File: Although you mentioned there are no manual redirects in your .htaccess, it’s good to double-check for any unexpected rules that might be affecting the sitemap URLs.

If these steps do not resolve the issue, we recommend replying to this ticket so a human agent from the Rank Math Support team can assist you further. Please include your site URL in your reply for more accurate assistance.

Thank you for your understanding, and we hope to resolve this issue for you soon!