This article is going to show you a simple plug-in that will stop you from pulling your hair out when the “Redirect Loop” happens to you.
You can check out the video overview at the bottom of this post.
Image by meredithfarmer
What Is The Redirect Loop?
One example of a re-direct loop is, if someone linked to your blog or a post, and the blogger changed the name of the link or url, when you visit the old url (if they are using redirection) it will send you to the new link.
A redirect loop happens when it keeps redirecting back and forth in an endless cycle. Luckily browsers cut the process short after a few tries, but if you have this happening to you, it can be brutal to try and figure out what’s going on and how to fix it.
How To Fix The Redirect Loop Problem in WordPress
Luckily this problem can be solved in less than 30 seconds provided you can login to your admin panel. If you cannot login to your admin panel, check out the next section. Mark Jaquith created this wonderful plugin called Disable Canonical URL Redirection, all you have to do is click that link, click download, and move the plugin to your plugin directory (under wp-content) and activate it, and your problem should be solved.
How To Stop The Endless Redirect Loop When Accessing The Admin Area
If you cannot get into the admin panel, you need to do check your plugin folders via FTP and see if you have any redirection plugins, if so delete them. If your site now works, great, if not, you’re going to have to delete your plugins one by one.
Before you start deleting all your plugins, I encourage you to take the time to backup all your plugins first, that way if it takes you awhile to find the guilty plugin, you can start adding back the ones you need to delete. You will also avoid having to Google up their names.
If this does not work for you, you may need to either upgrade to the latest version of wordpress, or revert to an older version. You can check out my article and video on how to upgrade your wordpress install.
Video Overview Showing How To Fix The Endless Loop Problem
Conclusion
I hope this article has helped you, and your back to enjoying your blog. This can be a very frustrating problem, and if you don’t know how to fix it, it can really mess you up. Be sure to check back on this site for other “quick fix” solutions and more. If you enjoyed this article, bookmark it (delicious), stumble it, and more. Talk to you soon.
{ 28 comments… read them below or add one }
Hey Jason this worked like a charm for me! I am going to have to look further into why this happened and how to fix it without an extra plugin/hack.
Thank you though!
Hi,
Thanks for the information Jason.
@Fred Let us know if you found how to fix it without using the plugin.
Thanks for this write up on how to fix this damned problem. It scared the crap out of me!
Holy crap, thank you so much for posting this!
I have been struggling over the past two days with a shared ssl redirect issue!
This plugin fixed it, and I’m so happy right now, lol.
Thanks again!
Dude.
I was losing my shit over this.
Thanks soo much… you’re site has been BOOKMARKED
Spleeep
Thank you worked wonderful
WORDKED… (I relieved !)
Special thanks to you for offering this step by step help.
(From I.R.Iran)
You, Mark Jaquith, and Sean at rackspace cloud (who directed me here) are awesome. i felt like i was in a straitjacket until i used this plugin.
thank you.
Thank you very much, I was having great difficulties with a Shopp plugin that hit a redirect loop when anyone tried to use the checkout to make a purchase. Problem solved within minutes thanks to your advice!
Jason (a different Jason)’s last blog post..Website design for learning disability
None of these worked for me.
I have been doing a fresh install ( even a fresh database) using the latest as of today (2.8.2).
Followed the 5 minute install.
First time looking at the site it asked for name of the site and email. Once entered, it just started redirect loop error.
Both for the main page and for the wp-admin page (which eventually goes to the main page to redirect loop error).
The only page i have managed to see is the wp-admin/install.php page which correctly states that is has already been installed.
I have removed all plugins (few since we didn’t add any).
Finally added the canonical redirect script.
No difference. Any ideas?
Followup:
I randomly started explicitly trying pages with in wp-admin. Finally got to the dashboard. Once there, I was able to activate the no redirect plugin. Everything now works great.
Never would have figured it out without this site.
Thank you
thank you very much
I have found the plugin theme my login that generated the loop.
THANK YOU!!!! I really was going f*cking crazy with this looping around! I think what really messed mi site was that stinky super cache plugin.
I had the site running fine locally, but once i exported it to remote server… looping took place.
Thanks again! YOU ROCK!
Alot of people have told me about this problem and usually my fix was disabling a “plugin” unfortunately not this time. I sure am glad you guys to the time to fix the problem and offer free solution is even better.
I didnt read the comments so I cannot go along with your theme here but i just want to say thanks
Thanks so much!
I was despaired after upgrading to 2.9, and this wonderful plugin worked fine for me…
I’ve let everyone know on the French Wordpress forum.
Happy New Year to you
Twitter: KraigGrayson
February 10, 2010 at 10:00 pm
Hey Jason. Thanks a million dude. The “Disable Canonical URL Redirection” solved my problem in under 30 seconds. I could not believe how easy it was to fix the redirect error. Keep up the good work. I am going to mention your website, this post in particular, in my next blog post. Look out for it!
Kraig Grayson´s last blog ..Make Money While Advertising
Ahhhhh !! exactly what i’ll search
very goood thanks
Mobi´s last blog ..Joomla! License Guidelines
Eureka! After trying many other solutions, none of which worked for me, this little plug-in did the trick. And yes this is a very frustrating problem.
Thank you for the great fix Jason.
Thank you so so much, I tried everything and nothing help, you advise worked
Thank you very much for your input. It has been very helpful and I was able to fix
the problem by installing the plugin and clearing my cookies.
Regards
Fermin´s last blog ..Uff!! Por los pelos…
thanks for the tip, after 3 days of trying to figure out the problem, i renamed my plugin folder via ftp and i was able to reach my login page!!!! hooray.
Thanks so much for this post, solved my problem instantly! Much appreciated
Seriously saved me a major headache! I just upgraded to 3.0 and the redirect loop started. Bookmarking site.
You ROCK. THIS WORKED. Thank you all so much. This saved me so much time.
For me, this plugin did not do the trick, but all I had to do to fix the problem is to add a trailing / to my website address.
Thanks so much. I recently upgraded to 3.0.1 with multi-site and got the redirect loop problem. And as you said – within 30 seconds it was fixed!
At least now I can spend a little time finding the root of the problem now without the site being down…..
Thanks – brilliant!!!! (but I think it takes a little less than 30 seconds….)
Twitter: tutorialog
August 12, 2010 at 11:18 am
Thanks a lot, it works great for me. But I still not understand why we had this issue ? and when we Disable Canonical URL Redirection, can that have any side effects.
Younes TARCHOUN´s last blog ..Video What is Gravatar
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