when updating a multisite blog subblogs getting 404 error

[YogieAnamCara]

When I run an update at my multisite, I get 404 error when I try to view a post. This error resolves when I change or update the permalinks at each sub blog. But it is annoying to do so when you have hundreds of sub blogs.

You were upgrading from which version to which? 3.0.3 to 3.0.4?

Also, what's the current permalink scheme you're using?

Related:
​http://lists.automattic.com/pipermail/wp-forums/2011-January/006727.html
​http://wordpress.org/support/topic/404-errors-after-update-need-to-flush-rewrite-rules-network-wide

I commented to the forum thread. Those rewrite rules look *very* weird.

I think I've seen this before in MU, but I was just never able to reproduce it. It also didn't just happen on upgrade, but that's another story. I ended up just dropping some code in the 404 handler to check if the rewrite rules were corrupted (obvious by the missing /blog/) and set a locking transient then flush the rewrite rules if so.

yes the bug is on the forum ​http://wordpress.org/support/topic/404-errors-after-update-need-to-flush-rewrite-rules-network-wide
I have posted several more information there...

Replying to garyc40:

You were upgrading from which version to which? 3.0.3 to 3.0.4?

Also, what's the current permalink scheme you're using?

It is not a major or core update, it is just when updating themes or plugins at the root and deploy these into the sub blogs

To summarize:

• Rewrite rules
  • Broken: ​http://wordpress.pastebin.com/tUk3Nq5U (verbose)
  • Working: ​http://wordpress.pastebin.com/HSHZp8nx
• Permalink structure
  • Main blog: /%postname%/
  • Sub-blog: /%year%/%month%/%postname%/

Looks like main blog structure is applied to a sub-blog under some circumstances.

Replying to yogieanamcara:

It is not a major or core update, it is just when updating themes or plugins at the root and deploy these into the sub blogs

What exactly do you mean by deploying?

Replying to SergeyBiryukov:

Replying to yogieanamcara:

It is not a major or core update, it is just when updating themes or plugins at the root and deploy these into the sub blogs

What exactly do you mean by deploying?

I was talkin about the
-> Super Admin -> Update
function at the root.

/wp-admin/ms-upgrade-network.php

Replying to SergeyBiryukov:

To summarize:

• Rewrite rules
  • Broken: ​http://wordpress.pastebin.com/tUk3Nq5U (verbose)
  • Working: ​http://wordpress.pastebin.com/HSHZp8nx
• Permalink structure
  • Main blog: /%postname%/
  • Sub-blog: /%year%/%month%/%postname%/

Looks like main blog structure is applied to a sub-blog under some circumstances.

Yes, but in regards to your last sentence, even when the main blog has the same permalink structure as it's sub blogs, the sub blogs reporting the 404 errors!

Replying to yogieanamcara:

Yes, but in regards to your last sentence, even when the main blog has the same permalink structure as it's sub blogs, the sub blogs reporting the 404 errors!

I guess that's because of the blog/ prefix on the main blog.

With the latest update to WP 3.0.5 this issue seems to be solved to me. I do not get any 404 errors after updating (/wp-admin/ms-upgrade-network.php) or updating plugins & themes.

Update: Sorry the bug is still there :(

With WP 3.1 it is still the same here, after doing a network upgrade to all my sub blogs I have to manually go to all sub blogs and open the permalink dialog and click on the save button do get rid of the 404 errors.

Has this been resolved yet? I have so many blogs in my multi site and updating every single ones permalinks is starting to drive me nuts

Please could you look into this urgently?

Replying to arnonel:

Has this been resolved yet?

I took another look at this and still not sure how to reproduce the scenario when a main blog structure is applied to sub-blogs on network upgrade. My guess it that some plugin is doing something wrong (like calling $wp_rewrite->flush_rules() out of place).

YogieAnamCara wrote that he's using sub-directory install with the Domain Mapping Plugin. Is this the case for you too?

Can you reproduce it on a clean install?

I've been experiencing the same bug in a clean install WP 3.2.1

My sites have been created using the create_empty blog() running in loop. For some reason, the rewrite rules of subpages contain the same structure as the main blog (starting with blog/). After applying a bug-fix, the problem is, at least so far, gone for good.

I've used several tricks, all of which fixes the bug:

• updating permalink settings of all subpages
• manually modified the rewrite_rules in the database (get_option, serialize, str_replace removing 'blog/', unserialize, update option)
• running the script at ​http://pastie.org/1485455 (and adding the line $wp_rewrites->init(); before flushing

For me it seems that the problem might be within using the create_empty_blog (in a loop).
It might have something to do with the bug (and/or fix) of loop-creating, ref: Ticket #12028

Hope this could help someone finding the bug, and please tell if I could help in any way! That said I'm a WP-noob, but love to help ;)

Any luck with this? For me the issue seems to happen consistently after updating the plugin
"Events Manager"

The plugins on my MultiSite install that call $wp_rewrite->flush_rules(); are:

Events Manager
Gravity Forms Directory & Addons
WordPress SEO

Please let me know if I can help in any way.

Can anyone reproduce this in an install with no plugins and sites that are created with the Network Admin -> Add Site screen ?

Replying to wpmuguru:

Can anyone reproduce this in an install with no plugins and sites that are created with the Network Admin -> Add Site screen ?

I've just done so with 3.5.1. This was a clean install from a tarball with no plugins and no other users. After adding the new site via Add Site I immediately loaded it and clicked on the "Uncategorized" category, which returned the "this is embarrassing" message. I believe this happens because populate_options() is bringing over the rewrite_rules option from the main site which includes all the blog/etc rules (appropriate for the main site but useless in a subdirectory instance). One method I've found to fix this is to reset the rewrite_rules option immediately after populate_options is done (in the wpmu_create_blog function):

update_option( 'rewrite_rules', array() );

That way the proper rewrite rules get generated on first visit. Hope this helps.

Version number indicates when the bug was initially introduced/reported.

I've reproduced the same result & confirmed that the rewrite rules on the new site are the ones for the main site.

I confirm as well that this bug is still present and adding update_option( 'rewrite_rules', array() ); like this seems to fix the issue:

$blog_id = wpmu_create_blog($domain, $path, $title, $wp_user_id, $meta);
			
			switch_to_blog($blog_id);
			update_option( 'rewrite_rules', array() );
			restore_current_blog();