🔍 What Is Happening
After activating or updating the Search Atlas WordPress plugin, some sites experience 404 errors on pages across the site. The rest of the site may appear to go offline even though no content has been deleted.
This issue has been reported in connection with plugin updates, including v2.6.11. If you are seeing sitewide 404 errors following a Search Atlas plugin update, the steps below are the recommended starting points for resolving the problem. If self-service steps do not resolve the issue, please contact our support team for further investigation.
✅ Steps to Try
The following steps address common causes of sitewide 404 errors in WordPress after a plugin update. Work through them in order.
- Log in to your WordPress admin dashboard.
- In the left-hand menu, go to Settings, then click Permalinks.
- Without changing any settings, scroll to the bottom of the page and click Save Changes.
- Reload any page on your site that was previously returning a 404 error to confirm it is now accessible.
- If the issue persists, go to Plugins in your WordPress dashboard, deactivate the Search Atlas plugin, then reactivate it. Immediately re-save your permalink settings afterward (repeat steps 2–4).
- If your site is on a managed WordPress host (such as WP Engine, Kinsta, or Flywheel), use your host's cache-clearing tool after saving permalink settings, as some hosts cache rewrite rules aggressively.
- In your WordPress dashboard, go to Plugins and check the version number listed under the Search Atlas plugin. If an update is available, apply it and then re-save permalink settings.
🚫 What Not to Do
- Do not delete and reinstall the plugin without first saving a note of your existing plugin settings, as reinstalling may reset your configuration.
- Do not restore a full site backup unless all other steps have failed and support has advised it.
💬 Still Experiencing 404 Errors?
If the steps above do not resolve the issue, please reach out to our support team with details about your hosting environment and the plugin version you are running. We're happy to investigate further.