Redirect loop

In a redirect loop, one rule sends visitors to an address and another rule sends them back. Browsers give up and show "This page isn't working" or ERR_TOO_MANY_REDIRECTS. It nearly always starts when two places try to do the same job, like WordPress and the server both deciding between https and www.

How to fix it

Change one thing at a time. WP Moo sees it on its next check, and the problem goes away by itself.

Check the WordPress addresses

Go to Settings › General in WordPress. Both addresses must match your main address exactly, with https and with or without www. Can't log in because of the loop? Ask your developer to set them in wp-config.php, see below.

Check Cloudflare's SSL mode

With the Flexible mode, Cloudflare talks to your server over http, and your server sends every visit back to https. Set the mode to Full or Full (strict) under SSL/TLS in Cloudflare. That needs a certificate on your server.

Check the redirect rules

Look in every place that can redirect, and remove the rule that sends visitors the other way:

your hosting panel, and the .htaccess file on Apache or LiteSpeed
Redirect Rules and Page Rules in Cloudflare
redirect, SEO and security plugins that force https

Clear the cache

A caching plugin or Cloudflare can keep serving an old redirect after you fixed it. Clear them, then test in a private window, because browsers remember permanent redirects.

For your developer

To follow the hops one by one:

curl -sIL --max-redirs 10 -A 'WPMooBot/1.0 (+https://wp-moo.com/bot)' http://example.com/ | grep -iE '^(HTTP|location)'

To force the WordPress addresses, add this to wp-config.php and remove it once the database is right:

define('WP_HOME', 'https://www.example.com');
define('WP_SITEURL', 'https://www.example.com');

Behind a proxy, WordPress only sees https when X-Forwarded-Proto is handled, and without that it redirects forever. Redirects explains how the addresses of a domain are followed, and Page checks how a page is.

Something unclear on this page? Email [email protected]