If you’ve ever taken a WordPress site live from a staging URL to a real domain and found your ACF custom post type links suddenly bringing up 404 errors, don’t worry—there’s a straightforward fix that might just save you time and frustration.
The Problem: Broken Custom Post Type Links
After launching a site on its new domain, I noticed that all my custom post type links were broken. Any attempt to visit a custom post type page directly would bring up a 404 error. All I had changed was the domain name, so I was stumped. Thankfully, there’s a simple solution that often resolves this issue.
The Solution: Resaving Your Permalinks
To fix this issue, all you need to do is resave your permalinks. Here’s how:
- Go to Settings > Permalinks in your WordPress dashboard.
- Choose your preferred structure (for example, “Post Name”) if it’s not already selected.
- Click Save Changes at the bottom. I recommend clicking it twice, just for good measure.
Once you save, WordPress refreshes its permalink structure, which can resolve any lingering issues from the domain change.
Why This Works
When you move a WordPress site, especially if you’re changing its URL, the database can get confused about the paths to custom post types. Resaving the permalinks forces WordPress to update the URL structure and can resolve 404 errors without needing to dive into code or settings changes.
Hopefully, this quick tip helped you get your custom post type links back on track.
