How To Fix ERR_TOO_MANY_REDIRECTS On Your WordPress Site?

Having any sort of error on the website increases the bounce rate because the error may restrict a visitor from accessing the website’s content. This can affect a lot of things such as brand value, traffic, exit rate, revenue, and even the website’s ranking on SERPs. One such error that is frequently faced by WordPress websites is ERR_TOO_MANY_REDIRECTS, and it leaves the website owners, visitors, and even the website reeling.

This error causes the websites to be stuck in the redirect loop until the issue is fixed. If hitting the right spot, this issue can be fixed within two minutes. However, figuring out the way with which this error can be resolved effectively is going to consume some time.

The blog is composed of detailed information about ERR_TOO_MANY_REDIRECTS error along with its reasons and various ways to fix the same. So, let’s dive in without further ado!

What is ERR_TOO_MANY_REDIRECTS?

As defined by its name, ERR_TOO_MANY_REDIRECTS error causes too many redirects on websites and eventually puts the website stuck in an infinite redirection loop. In most cases, the user or the administrator has to take action by themselves to resolve this issue.

One of the common reasons for the occurrence of this issue is the incompatibility of the browser with the website. This causes the browser to go back and forth via URLs and servers for figuring the location of the website and later get stuck in a redirection loop. However, there are a lot of other reasons as well that are briefly mentioned in the next section.

Reasons for ERR_TOO_MANY_REDIRECTS in WordPress

Since WordPress utilizes an SEO-friendly URL structure and requires a redirection for this feature, it is often observed that this redirection gets misconfigured and ends up causing the error. Other reasons can be the issue caused by plugins or the wrong HTTPS settings.

The redirections can also get affected and cause errors if using an SSL plugin or a caching plugin. However, you may not be able to know the exact reason for this issue and thus need to try multiple ways for troubleshooting the issue successfully.

Fixing ERR_TOO_MANY_REDIRECTS: A Quick Way

Before jumping into the different ways of resolving the error, you must try this basic method that may resolve the issue quickly and save a lot of your time and effort. It involves a simple step of checking and configuring the setting on your WordPress website. To execute this quick fix, navigate to your WordPress dashboard and go to your Settings, and then click on General.

From there, check your WordPress Address (URL), which indicates the location of your WordPress core installation, and your Site Address (URL), which is the domain of your website. They need to match exactly for eliminating the redirection loop issue.

You even have to pay attention to elements such as HTTP(S) and www. Similarly, match other content such as subdomains, registries, etc as well and then save all the changes by clicking on the Save button at the bottom of the Settings screen. Check your website and if the error continues, try the following ways to resolve the error.

Ways to Fix ERR_TOO_MANY_REDIRECTS

1. Delete Cookies and Browser Data

Nearly every browser asks users to clean the cookies to eliminate such issues. It is because cookies are often responsible for storing unnecessary or obsolete data that may result in ERR_TOO_MANY_REDIRECTS error. This process of deleting cookies is simple and can be accomplished within seconds.

However, cookies are the ones responsible for holding the “logged in” status on sites, so you have to log in again on the website using your credentials. Also, you can delete cookies for a specific site only so that the deletion doesn’t impact your sessions on other websites you frequently visit.

Furthermore, sometimes it is also possible that your browser may contain outdated or corrupted data and cache, which can also result in a similar error. Follow the steps mentioned below to clear the browser data:

On Chrome, click on the three dots present on the top right corner to open the settings. From there, click on Advanced then clear the browser data. Also, you can press ctrl+H to directly open the history and clear either the complete data or only the cookies for a particular website.
On Mozilla Firefox, click on the upper-right menu and click on “options”. Now select Privacy and Security and clear all the data.

2. Clear Server and Site Cache

Since redirect loops are eventually responses that can be cached, cleaning the WordPress site’s cache, server’s cache, or the cache of third-party proxy services becomes a mandatory process that you should perform from time to time.

Website’s Cache

If you can get access to your WordPress admin dashboard, you can easily clear the cache from the settings of your caching plugin. Follow the below-mentioned steps to achieve the same:

From the WordPress dashboard, go to plugins. Then click on “add new”.
Search for plugins to erase the cache, and add it to your website.
Then delete the Cache as per your need

Clear Server Cache

It is possible that you may not get access to the admin panel because of the redirection loop. In this case, you can achieve the same by clearing the cache of your server. This option will be available on the server’s dashboard and it can be done manually whenever required.

Clear Proxy Cache

Clearing the cache of any third-party proxy service is also very crucial. If you’re using the most popular ones such as Cloudflare or Sucuri, follow the steps mentioned below to achieve the same:

Cloudflare

To delete the Cloudflare cache, simply log in to your dashboard. From there, click on “Caching” and then select the option of “Purge Everything.”

Sucuri

On Sucuri, go to your dashboard and then click on the “Performance”. Now select the option of “Clear Cache” to purge all the cache from your proxy.

3. Check Your HTTPS Settings

Checking your HTTPS settings is crucial if you’re facing the redirection loop error on your website. This issue occurs when the website owner has migrated their WordPress site to HTTPS and has made potential errors during the process.

Ensure SSL Certificate

This is one of the most common mistakes that leads to multiple errors including the ERR_TOO_MANY_REDIRECTS error. Forcing a WordPress website to load on HTTPS without having the SSL certificate will instantly create a redirection loop for the website. Fixing this is an easy process that involves the installation of an SSL certificate on the website. In addition to the main SSL/TLS certificate, a chain of intermediate certificates will also be installed.

You can first run an SSL check and then set up things properly after finding issues. You can take the help of various tools to verify the certificates. Users just have to enter the domain name and select the submit option to run the verification process.

Update hard-coded links instead of using plugins

There are certain plugins available for SSL that allow automatic redirection of WordPress URL to HTTPS. This solution is temporary and is not good for the long term. It is because different plugins come with their own set of issues, including compatibility issues, that may hamper a lot of other stuff.

Verify HTTP to HTTPS redirection

There are high chances that the redirection from HTTP to HTTPS may get misconfigured.

For those who have their web servers running on Nginx, the process of redirecting all the HTTP traffic to HTTPS is a cakewalk that can be achieved simply by adding the following code to their Nginx config file. This method is suggested by several professionals.

server { listen 80; server_name domain.com www.domain.com; return 301 https://domain.com$request_uri; }

4. Remove Faulty Plugins

Having plugins on your WordPress website that are old and faulty can also result in the occurrence of ERR_TOO_MANY_REDIRECTS error. To resolve this issue, users can disable the plugins one by one by manipulating their files manually. You can either use the file manager provided by the hosting service provider or utilize the FTP client’s file. The latter method is quick and easy.

A single masterstroke to eliminate this issue on the WordPress website is to temporarily disable all the plugins. This will be a quick method that will also help in spotting the main issue. Sometimes, updating several plugins that run the redirection can also negatively impact the process and eventually cause redirect loops.

Keep in mind that disabling plugins will not delete any data from your website. Also, if you’re unable to access the dashboard to access these plugins, try logging in login via SFTP to your server, and rename the plugin folders to something else. Now check your website again.

5. Disabling .htaccess File

In many cases, it is also observed that certain variables inside the .htaccess file cause several issues to occur on your website. Therefore, if none of the above methods worked, you can try disabling your .htaccess file and check the website again. Here’s how you can disable the .htaccess file:

Go to your hosting panel and open your file manager.
From there, open your .htaccess file and right-click on the same to rename it.
Change the name to anything at your convenience.
Now refresh your website and see if the error is fixed or not

If the aforementioned steps work, edit the configurations of your .htaccess file to make them default manually by simply pressing the right click of your mouse. However, if this process doesn’t work, replace the whole content from the file with the default content mentioned below.

# BEGIN WordPress
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^index.php$ – [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]
</IfModule>
# END WordPress

After making these modifications, you can rename the file again as .htaccess.

Conclusion

ERR_TOO_MANY_REDIRECTS error can hamper the operation of a website as it keeps users, the website, and even the admin on the redirection loop. If you are facing this issue with your WordPress website, you need to troubleshoot it manually. There are various reasons for this issue to occur and therefore, you may need to try multiple ways to eliminate it. The blog contains nearly all the major ways through which this error can be resolved on a WordPress website.

People are also reading:

What is ERR_TOO_MANY_REDIRECTS?

Reasons for ERR_TOO_MANY_REDIRECTS in WordPress

Fixing ERR_TOO_MANY_REDIRECTS: A Quick Way