A few times recently, I’ve been writing a post, only to find that when I click on the Preview button within the WordPress dashboard, instead of previewing the post, I get a 404 page not found error. This is annoying as it means you have to publish the post just to view it, and you don’t want to do that. The problem seems to be caused by WordPress thinking you are not logged in, when you are.
I’m Using Google Chrome
I am using Google Chrome. I figured that the problem would go away if I used another browser, but I like Chrome so didn’t want to do that. However that is an option for you if you’re not wedded to Chrome as I am.
Here’s a short video showing you what I did. I hope it works for you.
I fixed my problem by doing the following :
- Logging out of my WordPress site or sites if you have more than one logged in
- Closing all my Google Chrome browser windows – even the minimised ones
- Open up a new Google Chrome browser window and make sure it only has only tab open
- Click the spanner at the top right of your Google Chrome browser window.
- Click on Options which opens up a new page
- Click on Under The Hood (on the left hand side of the window)
- Check everything except passwords and auto-fill form data
- Click on Clear Browsing Data and do it from the Beginning Of Time
- Close Google Chrome, and start it up again
{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi!!
I have a similar problem but only when there are images in the post, or embedded youtube videos. and when I try to save the draft, appears the same 404 message, it happens with Chrome, FireFox and IE.
A friend of mine who is administrator in the blog too, tried to do the same from a different PC, and the same thing happens. I have a second wordpress blog in the server, which is completely independient from the other, and in that blog occurs the same problem. In this moment I don’t know if there is a problem in the server or if there is some kind of “bug” in wordpress in general. Anyone knows something about it?
Thanks
I found the method I talk about in the video works every time in my case. Have you tried it?
Yes I tried, but look that the problem happens with all of the browsers that I have installed, and even in different PCs
If it happens with all browsers it sounds like it is an environmental problem on your server. I don’t think there is a general bug as not enough people are experiencing this problem. My problem was only happening with one browser – Chrome.
Hi Elizabeth,
I found that I had this problem this morning … did not have it yesterday …. but anyway … I followed your notes to the letter and sadly it did not make any difference .. I still have a 404 … back to google !!! ..thanks for sharing
Hi Michael. This was happening to me all the time when I wrote that post. But since upgrading to later versions of WordPress it no longer happens.
I checked your site and see that you are running an old version of WordPress. I could tell because you haven’t taken steps to remove the version number from your code. That is OK, but I thought I’d mention it. It is considered good practice to remove the version tag if you are not upgrading for some reason. Here is a tutorial on it :http://www.wpbeginner.com/wp-tutorials/the-right-way-to-remove-wordpress-version-number/
You could try upgrading, as this may well fix the preview problem.
Liz
Elizabeth,
I tracked the problem down to the following plugin
Advanced Category Excluder (ACE) which was causing the mischief… I am not so sure why .. as it has been installed and working fine up until this morning…..oh WordPres works in strange ways !!
Thanks ha ha you were probably checking it whilst I was de -activating all the plugins .. to find the black sheep … it is currently running 3.2.1 the most up to date version …the version number I think gets “removed” via a select box in a security plugin … .. maybe a function would be a more permanent solution ..thanks for the link
Well done for finding the problem … it may be this has been the culprit all along. I had that plugin installed for a short while and didn’t use it in the end. I wonder if that was always the issue?
I’m also having this same issue….not solved!:-(
What is the reason for this issue?