Sitemap_index.xml still gives 404

Hello,

We apologize for the issue you are facing with your sitemap returning a 404 error. This can be frustrating, but there are a few steps you can take to resolve this issue:

1. Flush Permalinks: Sometimes, simply flushing the permalinks can resolve the 404 error. To do this, go to your WordPress admin area, navigate to Settings → Permalinks, and click the Save Changes button without making any changes. This action refreshes the permalink structure.
   

2. Check Sitemap Location: Ensure that your sitemap is located in the root folder of your WordPress installation. The correct URL should look like this:
   `https://rankmath.com/kb/check-plugin-conflicts/

3. Check for Plugin Conflicts: Sometimes, other plugins can interfere with the sitemap functionality. You can use the Health Check plugin to check for any conflicts.

4. Review .htaccess File: If you are using an Apache server, ensure that your .htaccess file is correctly configured. You may need to reset it to default settings if there are any custom rules that could be causing issues.

5. Server Configuration: If you are using Nginx or another server type, ensure that your server configuration allows access to the sitemap.

If you have tried all these steps and are still encountering the 404 error, please reply to this ticket, and a human agent from the Rank Math Support team will take over and assist you further.

Thank you for raising this concern!

Hello,

Thank you for contacting us and sorry for any inconvenience that might have been caused due to that.

Please share your sitemap URL so that we can check.

Meanwhile, please try to follow the steps below and see if that works for you.

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. If the above steps don’t seem to work, kindly apply the following filter to your site.

add_filter( 'rank_math/sitemap/enable_caching', '__return_false');

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. We look forward to hearing from you.

Thank you.

Hello,

In this case, please follow the steps in this guide:
https://rankmath.com/kb/fix-sitemap-issues/#apache-error

If your server is Nginx, you may need to add the code below it instead:
https://rankmath.com/kb/fix-sitemap-issues/#nginx-server-error

Once done, clear your website and server’s cache for troubleshooting.

Looking forward to helping you.