Wordpress 3.1 permalink issue and fix (save you a few hours)

  Written by Jerry Chen on Feb 25, 2011 8:13 pm

• 5
   VOTES

  Up
• Tweet

Alright, so Wordpress 3.1 is out and...

Hoo-ray! All the new bells and whistles!

Internal link building, custom post format/template, cleaner admin panel, etc.

This post is not a review of the Wordpress 3.1.

If you're looking for a review, you can check out this nice Wordpress 3.1 Review by Lorelle VonFossen.

What I want to do is help you with the pesky Wordpress 3.1 Permalink Issue.

If you're having issues with Permalinks after upgrading to Wordpress 3.1, here's a likely cause and solution for it.

When I first upgraded to Wordpress 3.1 a couple of days ago, I immediately noticed that a 404 error occured on ALL of my posts on ALL of sites.

As an example, on my network marketing training site, the troubled Permalink structure I used was

http://www.buildamagneticnetwork.com/%post_id%/%postname%/

And since it broke ALL of posts I made it a priority to get this fixed.

I logged into my WP admin panel, went to

Settings > Permalinks

and changed the settings to Default.

Lo and behold! All my posts are active again, but of course with the SEO-unfriendly

http://www.buildamagneticnetwork.com/?p=3744

So I dug through all my plugins (disabled and re-enabled each plug-in, one by one...)

After hours of work I found the culprit for the Wordpress 3.1 permalink issue!

It's the ever-so-popular plugin called "Top Level Categories."

which basically changes the category permalinks

from /category/category-name to simply /category-name

So if you're using this plugin and having the same issue I'm having, here's what you need to do.

1. Log into your Wordpress admin panel

2. Go to Plugins >  Plugins > Top Level Categories

3. Click on Deactive

4. Download the FV Top Level Categories plugin that does the exact same thing except it's written specifically for the Wordpress 3.1 update.

5. Upload the FV Top Level Categories plugin via your Wordpress admin panel.

6. Activate FV Top Level Categories.

And... voila! Everything is back in working order!

NOTE: If you have any other permalink related plugins your site MAY still experience Wordpress 3.1 permalink issues.

Some plugins have not been updated for YEARS (for example, Top Level Categories) so hopefully this post solves your problem!

If you have any other Wordpress 3.1 permalink issue visit Wordpress's support forum here.

Good luck!

Login or register to post comments  |   Views: 1,139  |   Comments: 2