Internal links don't work when BPS activated since last update

[Hannah]

I can’t seem to figure out what’s happening, but ever since the last update to BPS, all links from the post excerpts on my home page at blogs.soartists.com/ArtMatters/ turn up 404 errors. In addition, my feed (both WP native and Feedburner) becomes unreadable, with no new posts being added. This is a disaster, so I currently I have deactivated Root Folder BulletProof Mode. Any idea what could be the problem?

[Hannah]

BTW, analytics shows that the problem started on May 10. I’m pretty sure this is when I updated BPS.

[AITpro Admin]

Sounds like the common cPanel HotLink Protection Tool problem. http://forum.ait-pro.com/forums/topic/read-me-first-free/#cpanel-hotlink-protection

Activate Root BulletProof Mode again and lock your root .htaccess file.

[Hannah]

Sorry to be doubtful, I’ve been thinking about this and I really wonder if this is the issue. BPS and my site were working perfectly before the last update, with no problems from the time I installed it. When I replace the root .htaccess file generated by the newest version with the previous one, the site displays just fine, where with the new one only the home page and admin are accessible. Can you explain?

Also, I read the post you referenced, logged in to my host and tried to wrap my head around what needed to be done, but the verbage was confusing as to how to disable the hotlink protection in CPanel and didn’t seem to match what I was looking at in my CPanel, and I didn’t get how to “lock” the root .htaccess file, so I didn’t change anything.

Still, since it was working fine before the update, with nothing else having changed on my server, I’m having a hard time agreeing that this could be causing the problem.

I would like to update my BPS though, I really like the plugin and it does make me nervous to be using the old .htaccess file. I hope you can clarify what to do about this.

[AITpro Admin]

It is always possible that something unusual is occurring on your website, but it is good to eliminate the #1 most common problem:  The broken cPanel Hotlink Protection Tool problem first.  It causes over 60% of the problems with BPS:  404 errors, 403 errors, website crashes, links not working, menus broken, CSS broken and the list goes on and on.

You cannot disable the Hotlink protection tool – that is also broken in that tool.
You would lock your root .htaccess by clicking the Lock htaccess File button on the BPS htaccess File Editor tab page.
Are you clicking the [obsolete-removed] buttons before activating BulletProof Modes?
What other troubleshooting steps have you done so far?
Have you looked at your old .htaccess file side by side with your new .htaccess file to check for differences in the 2 files?

[Hannah]

OK, I see what I was doing now – skipping the [obsolete-removed] buttons before activating. Sorry, I didn’t realize I had skipped this, but I’m delighted that we’re working again! There have been a couple of times when it worked right after activation only to go down after a few minutes, so please don’t close this for just a bit til I’m sure. I’ll let you know with a closing post here. Thanks so much.

[Hannah]

Yup. We’re looking good now! Thanks again. Sorry to take your time with such a simple oversight.

[AITpro Admin]

Great!  Always glad when it is was something simple and not something complex.  Thanks for confirming all is well.

We will be releasing BPS .48.6 in a day or so that will have new/additional Custom Code options/text boxes.  So when you do the update let me know if the automatic update completes successfully without you having to click the [obsolete-removed] buttons again.  For some odd reason the root .htaccess file is not automatically being locked again on some websites/hosts after upgrading BPS so check that your root .htaccess is locked after updating BPS.  If it is not automatically locked again then lock it on the htaccess File Editor page by clicking the Lock .htaccess File button.  Thanks.

[Author]

Posts