Hello,
Thank you for contacting Rank Math and bringing your concern to our attention. I’m sorry for any inconvenience this issue may have caused you.
Could you please share the category URL so we can check?
Meanwhile, ensure you are using the latest version of Rank Math:
https://rankmath.com/changelog/free/
After that, clear your website cache including any server-level caching services like Cloudflare. You may also head over to your WordPress Dashboard > Settings > Permalinks and click the “Save” button without changing anything.
If that doesn’t help, please get in touch with your web hosting provider and reach out to them to see if it is not a server-related configuration issue.
After that, observe if you are still experiencing the 404.
Let us know how this goes.
Thank you.
Hello,
I have updated the sensitive data as requested. Can you please check further?
Thank you.
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,
We’ve checked your website and we can see your categories are currently working properly even with the Rank Math plugin. However, if you’re facing this issue frequently then it is possible the permalinks are not sticking for more than a couple of hours. We’ve seen some similar issues in the past and the most common fix for this kind of issue is to refresh the permalinks programmatically.
To do that, you could add the following snippet to flush the permalinks every hour and prevent the error from appearing:
add_action('my_hourly_event', 'do_this_hourly');
function my_activation() {
if ( !wp_next_scheduled( 'my_hourly_event' ) ) {
wp_schedule_event(time(), 'hourly', 'my_hourly_event');
}
}
add_action('wp', 'my_activation');
function do_this_hourly() {
global $wp_rewrite;
$wp_rewrite->flush_rules();
}
Here’s how you can add filter/hook to your WordPress site: https://rankmath.com/kb/wordpress-hooks-actions-filters/
Let us know how it goes. Looking forward to helping you.
Thank you.
I prefer not to add temporary codes. I look forward to you making a stable release in the future. The goal is to point out that there is a problem with Rank Math. 🙂
Hello,
The intermittent 404 issues you’ve experienced can be influenced by several factors beyond just plugins, including server settings, caching mechanisms, or conflicts with other plugins.
Our solution is more of a general WordPress workaround for the permalinks not sticking rather than a specific fix for an issue within Rank Math.
The code we shared isn’t particularly related to Rank Math but addresses a known WordPress quirk where permalinks can sometimes reset.
We suggested this code to help ensure your site’s functionality remains intact regardless of what might be causing the issue.
I understand your concerns about adding temporary fixes, and we respect that.
If the issue were directly related to Rank Math, rest assured we would be working diligently on a fix for a stable release.
However, given the intermittent nature of this error and the fact that it only appears occasionally on the staging site, it’s challenging to pin it directly to Rank Math.
We hope that helps, and please don’t hesitate to get in touch if you have any other questions.
Thank you.
For the moment I have disabled a Super Cache option. I am aware that on another site, it created major instability problems. Probably with this new hosting, shared servers are more powerful.
Hello,
Sure, that is a good idea to disable caching for the time being.
We hope that our suggestions have helped.
Do let us know if the issue arises again.
Looking forward to help 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.
