On a recently installed Magento, version 1.7.0.2, freshly downloaded from their website, I was going through setting up the e-commerce site, following their documentation, manuals they emailed, and support forums, but was having the weirdest problem:
- the website base url was saying: websitename.com/index.php
- categories showed up in my main menu as I had created them, but when clicking the category (eg. category-created), it would bring me to a 404 Page Not Found error
- if I then used the url: websitename.com/index.php/category-created/ I could find the category I was looking for
This should immediately ring a few bells for the savvy coder, and tell you that the mod-rewrite file isn’t working as it should for Magento.
So, the problem was that the .htaccess file that supposedly comes with Magento by default, wasn’t supplied in the distribution.
All that I had to do to solve the problem was get my hands on a copy of the default .htaccess file that comes with the distribution, and plop that down in the root directory, and everything immediately worked as it was supposed to.
I found a copy of the .htaccess file on colinmollenhour’s github repository, which I will copy/paste here for you to copy/paste into your own file.
A few tips:
- When saving the .htaccess file on your website’s root directory, if you’re saving it in notepad, make sure you name it as simply: .htaccess, and drop down the menu below it selecting (*.*) All files.
- The file is to be located in your e-commerce store’s root directory, which is the same place that Magento resides.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
############################################
## uncomment these lines for CGI mode
## make sure to specify the correct cgi php binary file name
## it might be /cgi-bin/php-cgi
# Action php5-cgi /cgi-bin/php5-cgi
# AddHandler php5-cgi .php
############################################
## GoDaddy specific options
# Options -MultiViews
## you might also need to add this line to php.ini
## cgi.fix_pathinfo = 1
## if it still doesn't work, rename php.ini to php5.ini
############################################
## this line is specific for 1and1 hosting
#AddType x-mapp-php5 .php
#AddHandler x-mapp-php5 .php
############################################
## default index file
DirectoryIndex index.php
<IfModule mod_php5.c>
############################################
## adjust memory limit
# php_value memory_limit 64M
php_value memory_limit 128M
php_value max_execution_time 18000
############################################
## disable magic quotes for php request vars
php_flag magic_quotes_gpc off
############################################
## disable automatic session start
## before autoload was initialized
php_flag session.auto_start off
############################################
## enable resulting html compression
#php_flag zlib.output_compression on
###########################################
# disable user agent verification to not break multiple image upload
php_flag suhosin.session.cryptua off
###########################################
# turn off compatibility with PHP4 when dealing with objects
php_flag zend.ze1_compatibility_mode Off
</IfModule>
<IfModule mod_security.c>
###########################################
# disable POST processing to not break multiple image upload
SecFilterEngine Off
SecFilterScanPOST Off
</IfModule>
<IfModule mod_deflate.c>
############################################
## enable apache served files compression
## http://developer.yahoo.com/performance/rules.html#gzip
# Insert filter on all content
###SetOutputFilter DEFLATE
# Insert filter on selected content types only
#AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/html text/plain text/xml text/css text/javascript
# Netscape 4.x has some problems...
#BrowserMatch ^Mozilla/4 gzip-only-text/html
# Netscape 4.06-4.08 have some more problems
#BrowserMatch ^Mozilla/4.0[678] no-gzip
# MSIE masquerades as Netscape, but it is fine
#BrowserMatch bMSIE !no-gzip !gzip-only-text/html
# Don't compress images
#SetEnvIfNoCase Request_URI .(?:gif|jpe?g|png)$ no-gzip dont-vary
# Make sure proxies don't deliver the wrong content
#Header append Vary User-Agent env=!dont-vary
</IfModule>
<IfModule mod_ssl.c>
############################################
## make HTTPS env vars available for CGI mode
SSLOptions StdEnvVars
</IfModule>
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
############################################
## enable rewrites
Options +FollowSymLinks
RewriteEngine on
############################################
## you can put here your magento root folder
## path relative to web root
#RewriteBase /magento/
############################################
## workaround for HTTP authorization
## in CGI environment
RewriteRule .* - [E=HTTP_AUTHORIZATION:%{HTTP:Authorization}]
############################################
## always send 404 on missing files in these folders
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/(media|skin|js)/
############################################
## never rewrite for existing files, directories and links
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-l
############################################
## rewrite everything else to index.php
RewriteRule .* index.php [L]
</IfModule>
############################################
## Prevent character encoding issues from server overrides
## If you still have problems, use the second line instead
AddDefaultCharset Off
#AddDefaultCharset UTF-8
<IfModule mod_expires.c>
############################################
## Add default Expires header
## http://developer.yahoo.com/performance/rules.html#expires
ExpiresDefault "access plus 1 year"
</IfModule>
############################################
## By default allow all access
Order allow,deny
Allow from all
############################################
## If running in cluster environment, uncomment this
## http://developer.yahoo.com/performance/rules.html#etags
#FileETag none
i have the exact same problem, the htaccess you provided didnt change a think 🙁
still getting all besides front page 404 error, i cant even login to admin panel!
wtf is that problem!?
I changed my .htacess file its not working. It again showing me an error page not found 404 at http://logicshape.co.in/webexpert/about-us.html.
Dear Renusharma & Vernam, are you sure that you saved the htaccess file properly? ie. only as “.htaccess” not “.htaccess.txt” or “.htaccess.php” ?
Also, you might want to confirm that modrewrite is enabled in your webserver, for Apache you can start your search here ~> http://httpd.apache.org/docs/current/mod/mod_rewrite.html
fixed my problem.They really really really need to include that in the distribution
Hi this didnt fix my problem, I copied the .htaccess content you have to my htaccess, I cleaned cache, my mod_rewrite is enabled, but still the 404 error appears in all links, except homepage. What else did I missed?
Hello, did you make sure that the .htaccess file is named properly?
1. When saving the .htaccess file on your website’s root directory, if you’re saving it in notepad, make sure you name it as simply: .htaccess, and drop down the menu below it selecting (*.*) All files.
2. The file is to be located in your e-commerce store’s root directory, which is the same place that Magento resides.
Still the same issue here. I tried your .htaccess, didn’t work. Made sure mod_rewrite is enabled:
sudo a2enmod rewrite
no result. Clean install of apache 2.2 on my local ip: http://ipnumber/magento
Hello Jacco. Are you sure that the .htaccess file is located in the right directory and named properly?
1. When saving the .htaccess file on your website’s root directory, if you’re saving it in notepad, make sure you name it as simply: .htaccess, and drop down the menu below it selecting (*.*) All files.
2. The file is to be located in your e-commerce store’s root directory, which is the same place that Magento resides.
Also, please see comment above for a way to confirm mod_rewrite is enabled.
I found a solution.
not allow the url rewrting in the settings
worked for me 😉
Work perfect for me, thank you very much!!!
Thank you!!! It solved my problem! 🙂
Works like charmmmm. .. thanks a lot 🙂
Happy to help Chandru.
Thank you!!!!!
WORKED
So happy to hear Max!!
Thanks a lot…This worked for me super!!!!
Thanks for good advice.
Happy to help Igor!
Thanks man . It worked , Although Base URL rewrite could be another option to fix this issue . Anyway good find 🙂
Tapajyoti
Happy it worked Tapajyoti, and thanks for the suggestion!
Your a lifesaver man! Thanks
Happy to help Dvoy. 🙂
Thanks, This solution saved my life. By mistake the # removed from the “RewriteBase /magento/” and it totally messed up my admin panel. Then see the .htaccess code here, i just recognized my mistake and corrected it. It works fine now.
Happy it helped Shahzad! I’d suggest, if you can, to migrate your e-commerce store to WordPress! So much easier and glitch free.
Thank you for this! I had made the mistake of messing with my PHP.ini and .HTACCESS files trying to update Memory Allocation and in the process corrupted my whole site. I eventually got the site back but the only page working was the home page. Updated my HTACCESS with the code you supplied and things are working again!
Life saver – muchas gracias!
Thank you so much 🙂 you are seriously great (Y)
This is gave 500 error for me.. i have already been facinf 404 error on my magento website. tried your .htaccess file. checked file name while saving but when i uploaded to root folder my website it shows error 500. Do u have any fix for 404 error page…
Ghazi, this indicates to me that the 404 solution you made had an error in it, likely somewhere either in the code you changed/wrote, in how you saved it, how it was uploaded, or the access rights on the .htaccess file itself. A safe bet is to always just modify the existing .htaccess file to avoid much of these errors.
Please also note that a 404 error is file not found, so the file must be there in the first place..
You rocks sir…. I wasted 3-4 days for this issue. Went though many blogs.. But your only .htaccess file works..
No need to change url rewrights.. Set it Yes.
Only replace of this .htaccess file sufficinet to eliminate 404 error..
Thanks buddy..
Kunal, something tells me that I also wasted a few days on this issue! Glad it helped 🙂
I tried so many different suggestions on how to fix my problem – nothing worked!
However, coping .htacces you provided worked perfect 🙂 thank you!!!!
So happy it helped Pinky!