A page went down and I get a "Page Not Found" error. I tried looking at all existing pages and the page is simply not there. It isn't in trash, either.

However, when I created another page and hit "preview," I could suddenly navigate to the missing page, which works just fine.

I inspected the page and the source reads "www.website/?p=480" alongside wp-content and wp-admin, etc.

What is going on here? ((I was careful to copy the ?p=480 file content to notepad just in case it only exists inside of the cache))

A page went down and I get a "Page Not Found" error. I tried looking at all existing pages and the page is simply not there. It isn't in trash, either.

However, when I created another page and hit "preview," I could suddenly navigate to the missing page, which works just fine.

I inspected the page and the source reads "www.website/?p=480" alongside wp-content and wp-admin, etc.

What is going on here? ((I was careful to copy the ?p=480 file content to notepad just in case it only exists inside of the cache))

• pages
• 404-error

• Maybe it's not public? Or the page is not published yet. – Refilon Commented Sep 28, 2019 at 20:43
• I wish, but it isn't a draft or anything. It's just gone. Probably someone deleted it. – SirenKing Commented Sep 28, 2019 at 20:43
• The problem seems to originate with the W3 Total Cache plugin. Updating the plugin fixed the issue temporarily, but now it's back with a vengeance. All the details regarding the missing page are the same, but now deactivating/uninstalling/reinstating didn't work (I tested each individually). A friend said it sounds like a database issue being caused by the plugin, but I don't understand how that works – SirenKing Commented Nov 4, 2019 at 8:00

1 Answer 1

It certainly sounds like a caching issue. Even if you disable W3 Total Cache, often it keeps cache code in your wp-config.php file and .htaccess. Purge all that code and see if the problem persists.

Also, make sure your web host does not have server caching. Many "managed" platforms have a built-in cache (eg. WP Engine, SiteGround) which can lead to unusual behaviour. Purge or switch off any server cache you find.

The other thing it could be is your permalinks. Go to the Permalinks page and just click "Save Changes" to force the permalink records in the database to be rebuilt. That should flush out any erroneous records.