WordPress Expert

Have you tried to enable “Pretty Permalinks” but the change doesn’t show up on your blog?

I have, and I’ve successfully used this tactic buried in the WordPress Codex’s Using Permalinks article under the “Fixing .htaccess Generation Issues” section.

This only applies if your web host is using Apache (if you aren’t sure, chances are it is, but you might want to check with your host first).

Your host might have blocked the SERVER_SOFTWARE variable and this will cause WordPress’ .htaccess generation to fail. If you are sure that your server is running Apache, you can force WordPress to believe that your server is running Apache by changing your wp-includes/vars.php file. Follow the steps below to implement these changes.

• Open the wp-includes/vars.php file using the built in file editor in your WordPress Admin panel. To navigate to this panel, login to WordPress, click on “Manage”, then on “Files”, scroll to the bottom and type in wp-includes/vars.php into the text box under the “Other Files” title.

  Look for

  $is_apache = strstr($_SERVER['SERVER_SOFTWARE'], ‘Apache’) ? 1 : 0;

  and replace it with

  // $is_apache = strstr($_SERVER['SERVER_SOFTWARE'], ‘Apache’) ? 1 : 0;

• Add a new line under

  // $is_apache = strstr($_SERVER['SERVER_SOFTWARE'], ‘Apache’) ? 1 : 0;

  and type in

  $is_apache = 1;

Then click “Update File,” and try re-enabling permalinks.

Did this tip work for you? Have another permalink troubleshooting tip you’d like to share? Use the comments section below!