## 🛠️ Root Cause

The 403 error occurred because the plugin previously generated static sitemap files on disk. On certain server configurations (especially nginx), file permissions or rewrite rules prevented public access to these files after updates, triggering a 403 Forbidden response.



## 🚀 Permanent Solution

The engineering team has released a fix that switches sitemap generation to virtual-only mode with regenerate-on-miss. This eliminates static file writes entirely — sitemaps are now served dynamically via WordPress rewrite rules, bypassing file permission issues.

1. Log in to your WordPress admin dashboard.
2. Navigate to the Plugins page and locate the Search Atlas plugin.
3. If an update is available, click **Update Now** to install version 2.6.11 or later.
4. After updating, visit your sitemap URL (typically `/sitemap.xml`) to confirm it loads without a 403 error.

No additional configuration is required — the virtual-only mode activates automatically upon update.



## ✅ Verification

Once updated, the sitemap should return a valid XML response with HTTP 200. You can also verify in Google Search Console that the sitemap is fetched successfully.



## 📋 Related Improvements

This fix also resolves related issues where sitemaps returned 404 on the frontend despite showing as generated in admin, and prevents plugin activation from causing 404s on all pages except the home page.



## 💬 Need Help?

If you need further assistance, open the chat widget in the bottom-right corner of the platform and type **human teammate** to be connected with a member of our team.