In PHP logs I keep getting errors like this:

does not exist: /home/user/domains/domain/public_html/wp-index.php, referer: .php
File does not exist: /home/user/domains/domain/public_html/blog/wp-index.php, referer: .php

However, the referrers don't exist either, so I'm not sure where to track the problem down. What is causing the error? The blog itself seems to work fine. I'm just trying to eliminate the errors in the log.

WordPress 5.5.1

Not sure what to tag this question with.

[ed]

I could not find any instances of the string "wp-index.php" in my blog folder.

Here's a screenshot of the log. Is it an PHP error log or access log?

In PHP logs I keep getting errors like this:

does not exist: /home/user/domains/domain/public_html/wp-index.php, referer: http://domain/wp-index.php
File does not exist: /home/user/domains/domain/public_html/blog/wp-index.php, referer: http://domain/blog/wp-index.php

However, the referrers don't exist either, so I'm not sure where to track the problem down. What is causing the error? The blog itself seems to work fine. I'm just trying to eliminate the errors in the log.

WordPress 5.5.1

Not sure what to tag this question with.

[ed]

I could not find any instances of the string "wp-index.php" in my blog folder.

Here's a screenshot of the log. Is it an PHP error log or access log?

• errors

• 1 Have you searched the codebase for references to those files? wp-index.php isn't a WP file, and are you sure this is a PHP error log and not an Apache/Nginx access log? Those could just be 404's from bots probing your site – Tom J Nowell ♦ Commented Oct 8, 2020 at 21:33
• I updated my question with a screenshot of the log. I could not find any "wp-index.php" strings in the blog folder. – posfan12 Commented Oct 11, 2020 at 4:38
• what's the log file called and what folder was it in? – Tom J Nowell ♦ Commented Oct 11, 2020 at 21:42
• Since the file doesn't exist on the server, the cause may be bots trying to reach files that have been deprecated in newer versions of WordPress. My blog gets a lot of bot activity in general. – posfan12 Commented Nov 10, 2020 at 6:50

1 Answer 1

To investigate the issue, you can follow these steps:

1. Check site URL in settings - General, WordPress Address (URL) and Site Address (URL) If you have WordPress in a directory, make sure the installation process is right based on https://wordpress/support/article/giving-wordpress-its-own-directory/
2. Check .htaccess file to make sure there is no wrong rule. Check the documentation link on step 1.
3. Re-install WordPress from admin dashboard - Updates.