Sitemap could not be read, General HTTP error, Showing 404 Error

Hello,

We apologize for the issue you are facing with your sitemap. A 404 error typically indicates that the sitemap cannot be found. Here are some steps you can take to resolve this issue:

1. Flush Permalinks

You may need to flush your permalinks. To do this, navigate to WordPress Dashboard → Settings → Permalinks. You don’t need to make any changes; just click the Save Changes button. This should help fix the 404 error.

2. Validate Your Sitemap

Ensure that your sitemap is correctly configured. You can validate your sitemap using the Validate XML Sitemap tool. If there are any issues detected, you will need to address them.

3. Check Sitemap Location

Make sure your sitemap is located in the root folder of your WordPress installation. The URL should look like this:
https://yourdomainname.com/sitemap_index.xml

4. Check for Caching Issues

If you have caching plugins installed, they might be caching an old version of your sitemap. Ensure that your sitemap is excluded from caching. You can find more information on how to do this in our tutorial.

5. Check Server Restrictions

Sometimes, server settings or security plugins can block access to the sitemap. Ensure that there are no restrictions preventing crawlers from accessing your sitemap.

Once you have followed these steps, try accessing your sitemap again. If the issue persists, please reply to this ticket, and a human agent from the Rank Math Support team will assist you further.

Thank you for raising this concern!

Sources:
Rank Math Sitemap Issues and Their Fixes » Rank Math
Troubleshooting the “Couldn’t Fetch” Error in Google Search Console » Rank Math

Hello,

We’ve checked your sitemap, and it is already opening fine and validated as well.

In this case, please follow these steps to flush your sitemap cache:

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/

3. Disable the transient cache for the sitemap by applying this filter. This will make sure that your XML sitemap always reflects the latest changes on your site:

/** 
 * Filter if XML sitemap transient cache is enabled.
 *
 * @param boolean $unsigned Enable cache or not, defaults to true
 */
add_filter( 'rank_math/sitemap/enable_caching', '__return_false');

If you’re not sure how to add this code, you can follow this guide:
https://rankmath.com/kb/wordpress-hooks-actions-filters/

Looking forward to helping you.

Hello,

There seems to be no issue with your sitemap when we checked with the validator: https://www.xml-sitemaps.com/validate-xml-sitemap.html

Please confirm if you see the same issue in your GSC account. If the sitemap is working fine there, then your server or site’s firewall must be blocking the validator from accessing the sitemap.

Please check with your host.

Let us know how that goes. Looking forward to helping you.