Hello,
Thank you for contacting Rank Math, and sorry for any inconvenience caused.
Can you please follow these steps?
1. Flush the Sitemap cache by following this video screencast:
https://i.rankmath.com/pipRDp
2. Exclude the Sitemap files of the Rank Math plugin in your caching plugin. The cache could be via a plugin or from the server. For plugins or Cloudflare, please follow this article:
https://rankmath.com/kb/exclude-sitemaps-from-caching/
That should fix the issue. Please let me know if that does not. We are here to assist.
Done with all the steps. Still showing 404 error.
Hello,
We might need to take a closer look at the settings. Please edit the first post on this ticket and include your WordPress & FTP logins in the designated Sensitive Data section.
Please do take a complete backup of your website before sharing the information with us.
It is completely secure and only our support staff has access to that section. If you want, you can use the below plugin to generate a temporary login URL to your website and share that with us instead:
https://wordpress.org/plugins/temporary-login-without-password/
You can use the above plugin in conjunction with the WP Security Audit Log to monitor what changes our staff might make on your website (if any):
https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-security-audit-log/
We really look forward to helping you.
Hello,
I have updated the sensitive data as requested. Can you please check further?
Thank you.
Hello,
Thank you for that information.
Could you please also share your FTP logins in the sensitive data section to check for static XML files?
Rank Math’s sitemaps are generated virtually so there should not be any page/post sitemap XML files in your website’s root directory.
Also, I’ve checked your site and some of your plugins are not updated to the latest version including Rank Math. Please update them to the latest version and check if the issue still persists.
Looking forward to helping you.
Thank you.
Hello,
I have updated the sensitive data as requested. Can you please check further?
Thank you.
Hello,
The 404 error is coming directly from the server which means that the request is failing at the server level.
If we change the permalink structure to plain and try to access the sitemap with an alternative URL such as this one: https://sleepvert.com/?sitemap=1 the post and page sitemap are able to be loaded on a different URL.
This is a clear indication that some server configuration is preventing the rewrite of the URLs and causing this issue.
To being you can try a default .htaccess file and then add the sitemap specific rules to it: https://rankmath.com/kb/fix-sitemap-issues/#apache-error
Hope this helps solve your issues.
Don’t hesitate to get in touch if you have any other questions.
Hi,
I have done the suggested changes. Still, the sitemap shows a 404 error.
Hello,
I tried accessing your FTP but I can’t seem to connect to your server.
Can you please check this one with your hosting provider and see if they are able to find any configuration of your server that might be hindering Rank Math to generate the sitemap file?
Let us know how that goes. Looking forward to helping you on this one.
Hi,
I have received the following reply from the server team.
“We’ve checked and all your settings are correct. It’s possible this is a plugin conflict or theme conflict, as our server is not blocking the creation of the file.”
Hello,
I tried only enabling Rank Math and the default theme and the affected sitemap pages still returning a 404 error at a server level.
We used this guide for troubleshooting so your users won’t be affected. Please refer to my video screencast in the Sensitive Data section.
Please provide the correct FTP login so we can conduct further troubleshooting.
Looking forward to helping you on this one.
Hello,
I have updated the sensitive data as requested. Can you please check further?
Thank you.
Hello,
Thank you for providing the details. I tried accessing your FTP server but I can’t seem to connect. The connection can’t be established.
Looking forward to helping you.
Hello,
Since we did not hear back from you for 15 days, we are assuming that you found the solution. We are closing this support ticket.
If you still need assistance or any other help, please feel free to open a new support ticket, and we will be more than happy to assist.
Thank you.
