ERR_TOO_MANY_REDIRECTS
HTTP 301

ERR_TOO_MANY_REDIRECTS

Elena Rodriguez ·

Symptoms

Your browser just told you the page has too many redirects. What’s happening: WordPress is sending your request from URL A to URL B, which sends it back to URL A, which sends it to URL B again — an infinite loop. The browser catches this after about 20 cycles and kills the request. The fix is usually straightforward once you know where the loop starts.

What Causes ERR_TOO_MANY_REDIRECTS?

  1. Mismatched Site URL and WordPress URL — The siteurl and home values in your database don’t match, or one uses https:// while the other uses http://. This is the #1 cause I see in client sites.
  2. SSL misconfiguration — Your host serves HTTPS, but WordPress isn’t configured for it, so a plugin or .htaccess rule forces HTTPS, WordPress redirects to HTTP, and the loop begins.
  3. Conflicting .htaccess rules — Multiple redirect rules from plugins, hosting panels, or manual edits that contradict each other.
  4. Plugin conflict — A caching plugin, SEO plugin, or redirect manager is creating a rule that clashes with another redirect in the stack.
  5. Corrupted cookies — Stale WordPress login cookies can trigger redirect loops, especially on the wp-admin and wp-login.php pages.

How to Fix It

Step 1: Clear Your Browser Cookies for the Site

Before touching any server files, rule out a client-side issue. Stale cookies cause this error more often than people realize.

In Chrome: open Settings → Privacy and Security → Cookies → See all site data, search for your domain, and delete those cookies. Or use this shortcut — visit your site with cookies cleared for just that domain:

chrome://settings/cookies/detail?site=yourdomain.com

Reload the site. If the error persists, it’s server-side. Move to Step 2.

Step 2: Force-Set Your Site URLs in wp-config.php

This bypasses whatever the database says and eliminates the most common cause. Connect via FTP or SSH and open wp-config.php in your site root. Add these lines above the line that says /* That's all, stop editing! */:

define('WP_HOME', 'https://yourdomain.com');
define('WP_SITEURL', 'https://yourdomain.com');

Use https:// if your site has an SSL certificate. Use http:// if it doesn’t. The protocol must match what your server actually serves. Skip this if you want headaches later — getting HTTP vs HTTPS wrong here is exactly what creates the loop.

If you have WP-CLI access, you can check the current values first:

wp option get siteurl
wp option get home

And update them directly:

wp option update siteurl 'https://yourdomain.com'
wp option update home 'https://yourdomain.com'

Step 3: Reset Your.htaccess File

If the URLs are correct and you’re still looping, the .htaccess file is the next suspect. Rename it via FTP or SSH:

mv /path/to/wordpress/.htaccess /path/to/wordpress/.htaccess.bak

Now reload the site. If it works, the old .htaccess had a bad redirect rule. Regenerate a clean one by going to Settings → Permalinks in your WordPress dashboard and clicking Save Changes. WordPress writes a fresh .htaccess automatically.

The right way to do this: compare your .htaccess.bak with the new file to find the offending rule. Don’t just move on and forget about it — that rule came from somewhere, and it’ll come back.

Step 4: Deactivate All Plugins

Still stuck? A plugin is injecting the redirect. Rename the plugins directory to cut them all off at once:

mv wp-content/plugins wp-content/plugins-disabled

Or with WP-CLI:

wp plugin deactivate --all

Reload the site. If the loop stops, reactivate plugins one at a time until the error returns. The last plugin you activated is the culprit. Common offenders: redirection plugins, SSL-forcing plugins, caching plugins, and some security plugins that enforce URL rules.

Step 5: Check for Server-Level Redirects

If none of the above fixes it, the redirect lives outside WordPress. Check these:

  • Hosting control panel: Look for forced HTTPS redirects in cPanel, Plesk, or your host’s dashboard. If your host forces HTTPS and a plugin forces HTTPS, you get a double redirect that can loop.
  • Cloudflare or CDN settings: If you use Cloudflare, set SSL mode to Full (Strict), not Flexible. Flexible mode is the single biggest cause of redirect loops on Cloudflare sites. Find this under SSL/TLS → Overview.
  • Nginx config: If you’re on Nginx instead of Apache, check /etc/nginx/sites-available/yourdomain.conf for conflicting return 301 rules.

Step 6: Enable Debug Logging

If you’re still hunting, turn on logging to see the exact redirect chain:

define('WP_DEBUG', true);
define('WP_DEBUG_LOG', true);
define('WP_DEBUG_DISPLAY', false);

Add these to wp-config.php, reproduce the error, then check wp-content/debug.log for clues. Look for any wp_redirect() calls or hook callbacks that fire during the request.

Prevention

  • Always set Site URL and WordPress URL through wp-config.php on production sites rather than relying on the database values. It’s one less thing that can drift.
  • Pick one SSL enforcement method and stick with it. Either your host handles HTTPS redirects, or a plugin does, or .htaccess does — never two of them at once.
  • Set Cloudflare SSL to Full (Strict) from day one if you use Cloudflare. Flexible mode is a trap that works until it doesn’t.
  • Test redirects after every plugin update. A quick curl -I yourdomain.com shows you the response headers and catches loops before your visitors hit them.

Last verified: April 2026

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