404 on Every Page Except the Homepage

This specific pattern — homepage fine, every other URL a 404 — means the server is not passing pretty permalinks to WordPress. The homepage works because it does not need a rewrite.

1. Flush the rewrite rules

Go to Settings → Permalinks and click Save without changing anything. This regenerates the rules and, on Apache, rewrites .htaccess. It resolves this more often than anything else.

Or from the command line:

wp rewrite flush --hard

2. Apache: check .htaccess

The file must exist in the web root and contain the WordPress block:

# BEGIN WordPress
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^index\.php$ - [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]
</IfModule>
# END WordPress

If the file is missing, create it with that content and set it to 644. If it exists and saving permalinks does not update it, the file is not writable.

3. Apache: is mod_rewrite enabled?

apache2ctl -M | grep rewrite
# should print: rewrite_module (shared)

# if missing
a2enmod rewrite
systemctl restart apache2

Also confirm the virtual host allows overrides. If AllowOverride is None, your .htaccess is being ignored entirely:

<Directory /var/www/html>
    AllowOverride All
</Directory>

4. Nginx: the try_files directive

Nginx does not read .htaccess. The rewrite must be in the server block:

location / {
    try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$args;
}

Without that line, every URL that is not a real file returns 404. After editing, test and reload:

nginx -t && systemctl reload nginx

5. If you cannot reach the admin

Set the permalink structure to the plain default from wp-config.php so the admin becomes reachable, fix the server configuration, then set the structure back:

// temporary
define( 'WP_HOME', 'https://example.com' );
define( 'WP_SITEURL', 'https://example.com' );

Admin URLs do not depend on the rewrite rules, so /wp-admin should remain reachable even when every front-end URL 404s. If it is not, you have a different problem.

When only some pages 404

That is a different issue and not this one:

Pattern	Likely cause
All pages except home	Rewrite rules — this post
Only a specific page	That page was deleted, or its slug changed
Only custom post types	Rewrite rules for that post type need flushing
Only category or tag archives	A slug conflict, or they are disabled
Only after a migration	Rewrite rules plus possibly a URL mismatch

Common questions

Why does saving permalinks fix it?

It regenerates the rewrite rules and rewrites .htaccess. If the rules were stale or the file was missing, that is the whole fix.

It worked on the old host

Different web server, or AllowOverride is set differently. Check which server you are now on.

Do I need to redirect anything?

No. The URLs are correct; the server was not routing them. Nothing has changed from a visitor’s perspective once it works.