discussion Guide Plesk Fixing WordPress .htaccess Errors in Plesk Panel (2025 Guide)

[CL4Y]

Fixing WordPress .htaccess Errors in Plesk Panel (2025 Guide) 🛠️​

If you are hosting a WordPress site on Plesk Panel, it’s quite common to encounter annoying .htaccess errors.
This small yet critical file directly interacts with your web server configuration, so even a single incorrect line can break your entire website.
In this guide, we’ll explain how to identify and fix common .htaccess issues (such as 500 and 404 errors) within the Plesk environment.

---

500 Internal Server Error and Configuration Conflicts​

If you see the well-known 500 Internal Server Error message on your site, it’s most likely caused by a conflict between your .htaccess file and your Apache or Nginx configuration.
Follow these steps to fix the problem:

Step 1: Verify the Source of the Error​

1. Access your server via FTP or Plesk File Manager.
2. Rename the existing .htaccess file to .htaccess_backup.
3. Reload your website. If the site now loads properly (in 99% of cases it will), then the issue is definitely in your .htaccess file — either old, incompatible, or incorrectly written directives.

Step 2: Identify the Problematic Code in Real-Time​

To find which code line is causing the issue, use Plesk’s log monitoring feature:

1. Log in to your Plesk Panel.
2. Go to the Logs section.
3. Enable live log tracking.
   Then, restore your .htaccess file line by line while refreshing your website.
   When the error reappears, check the logs — you’ll usually see a warning such as Invalid command 'Header', pinpointing the issue.

---

404 Page Not Found Error in WordPress​

If your homepage loads but individual pages (posts, categories, etc.) show a 404 Page Not Found error, it often means WordPress has lost its permalink structure.
In most cases, your .htaccess file is either missing or corrupted.

Solution: Automatically Recreate the .htaccess File​

WordPress automatically regenerates a fresh .htaccess file when you update the permalink settings:

1. Log in to your WordPress admin panel (wp-admin).
2. Go to Settings > Permalinks.
3. Temporarily change the structure to "Post name".
4. Click Save Changes at the bottom.

This will trigger WordPress to create a clean default .htaccess file.
After saving, check your site again.

If the file is not recreated automatically, you can manually add the default WordPress rules below:

# BEGIN WordPress

RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule .* - [E=HTTP_AUTHORIZATION:%{HTTP:Authorization}]
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^index\.php$ - [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]

# END WordPress

​

 

[CL4Y]

If a problem occurs, you can open a ticket.