We come across a lot of different errors here at Kinsta, and ERR_TOO_MANY_REDIRECTS (also known as a redirect loop) is one we see on a regular basis.
Typically this occurs after a recent change on your website, a misconfiguration of redirects on your server, or wrong settings with third-party services. But don’t worry, this error is fairly easy to fix.
Check out the recommendations below on how to fix this error and get your site back up and running.
What is the ERR_TOO_MANY_REDIRECTS Error?
The ERR_TOO_MANY_REDIRECTS error is pretty much what it sounds like: something is causing too many redirects, sending your website into an infinite redirection loop.
Essentially the site is stuck (such as URL 1 points to URL 2 and URL 2 points back to URL 1, or the domain has redirected you too many times) and unlike some other errors, these rarely resolve themselves and will probably need you to take action to fix it.
You might have also come across the error “request exceeded the limit of 10 internal redirects due to probable configuration error“.
| Error Code | ERR_TOO_MANY_REDIRECTS |
| Error Type | Browser error/code error |
| Error Variations | This page isn’t working. domain.com redirected you too many times. The page isn’t redirecting properly This page isn’t working right now Safari Can’t Open the Page |
| Error Causes | Misconfigured WordPress settings/plugins Issues with browser’s cache/cookies. Issues with third-party services Bad HTTPS settings Bad server settings |
The ERR_TOO_MANY_REDIRECTS error
The ERR_TOO_MANY_REDIRECTS error occurs as a result of a misconfiguration of redirects on your server, or incorrect settings with third-party services. This error is essentially what it implies: a loop of too many redirects is causing your website to be stuck in an endless cycle.
ERR_TOO_MANY_REDIRECTS: What Does It Look Like?
There are a couple of different variations of this error depending upon the browser you’re running.
Google Chrome
In Google Chrome this error will show as ERR_TOO_MANY_REDIRECTS (as seen below) or This webpage has a redirect loop problem.
This page isn’t working. domain.com redirected you too many times.
(Check out how to fix Chrome’s ERR_CACHE_MISS error).
Mozilla Firefox
In Mozilla Firefox it will show as The page isn’t redirecting properly (as seen below).
An error occured during a connection to domain.com. This problem can sometimes be caused by disabling or refusing to accept cookies.
Microsoft Edge
In Microsoft Edge, it will simply show as This page isn’t working right now (as seen below).
Domain.com redirected you too many times.
Safari
In Safari, it will show as Safari Can’t Open the Page (as seen below).
Too many redirects occurred trying to open “domain.com.” This might occur if you open a page that is redirected to open another page which is then redirected to open the original page.
What Causes the ERR_TOO_MANY_REDIRECTS Error?
This error happens when the browser can’t establish a connection between the initial page and the destination page in a redirect. The main causes can be:
- Misconfigured WordPress settings
- Misconfigured WordPress plugin.
- Misconfigured server settings.
- Incorrect HTTPS settings.
- Issues with the browser’s cache/cookies.
- Issues with third-party services (e.g. CDNs).
- Improper website or domain migration.
How To Fix the ERR_TOO_MANY_REDIRECTS Error?
Here are some recommendations and things to check to fix the error (sorted in order by most common reasons we see):
- Delete Cookies on That Specific Site
- Clear Server, Proxy, and Browser Cache
- Determine Nature of the Redirect Loop
- Check Your HTTPS Settings
- Check Third-Party Services
- Check Your WordPress Site Settings
- Temporarily Disable WordPress Plugins
- Check Redirects on Your Server
1. Delete Cookies on That Specific Site
Google and Mozilla both in fact recommend right below the error to “try clearing your cookies.” Cookies can sometimes contain faulty data in which could cause the ERR_TOO_MANY_REDIRECTS error. This is one recommendation you can try even if you’re encountering the error on a site you don’t own.
Due to the fact that cookies retain your “logged in” status on sites and other settings, we recommend simply deleting the cookie(s) on the site that is having the problem. This way you won’t impact any of your other sessions or websites that you frequently visit.
Follow the steps below to delete a cookie on a specific website in Google Chrome.
Step 1
In Google Chrome click on the three small dots in the upper right-hand corner. Then click on “Settings.”
Step 2
Scroll down and click on “Advanced.”
Step 3
Then click on “Content settings.”
Step 4
Click on “Cookies.”
Step 5
Then click on “See all cookies and site data.”
Step 6
Search for the site (domain) where you are encountering the ERR_TOO_MANY_REDIRECTS error. You can then delete the cookie(s) currently stored on your computer for that domain. Then try visiting the site again.
2. Clear Server, Proxy, and Browser Cache
Due to the fact that redirect loops are responses that can be cached, it’s always recommended to try clearing the cache on your WordPress site, the server, third-party proxy services, and even your browser if necessary.
Clear WordPress Site Cache
Depending upon the type of redirect loop, you might still be able to gain access to your WordPress admin dashboard. In this case, you can easily clear the cache within the settings of your caching plugin. Here are a couple of quick links on how to clear WordPress cache with popular plugins:
If you’re a Kinsta client, you can easily clear your cache from the WordPress admin toolbar.
Clear Server Cache
If you can’t access WordPress admin, many WordPress hosts have their own control panel tools for clearing the cache on your WordPress site.
If you’re a Kinsta client, you can manually clear WordPress cache from within the MyKinsta dashboard. Here are the steps:
Within the dashboard, click on WordPress Sites in the left sidebar navigation.
Click on your site name in the sites list and click on the Tools tab.
Click the Clear cache button to clear all cache.
Clear Proxy Cache
If you’re using a third-party reverse-proxy service such as Cloudflare or Sucuri, it can also be beneficial to clear the cache on their side.
Cloudflare
To purge Cloudflare cache, login to their dashboard, click into “Caching” and click on “Purge Everything.”
Sucuri
To purge Sucuri cache, login to their dashboard, go to “Performance” and click on “Clear Cache.”
Clear Browser Cache
If you want to check and see if it might be your browser cache, without clearing your cache, you can always open up your browser in incognito mode. Or test another browser and see if you still see the ERR_TOO_MANY_REDIRECTS error.
If you determine it is being caused by your browser cache, you can then clear it. Below are instructions on how to do it in various browsers:
- How to Force Refresh a Single Page for All Browsers
- How to Clear Browser Cache for Google Chrome
- How to Clear Browser Cache for Mozilla Firefox
- How to Clear Browser Cache for Safari
- How to Clear Browser Cache for Internet Explorer
- How to Clear Browser Cache for Microsoft Edge
- How to Clear Browser Cache for Opera
3. Determine Nature of Redirect Loop
If clearing the cache didn’t work, then you’ll want to see if you can determine the nature of the redirect loop. Our free online Redirect Checker tool can help provide some further analysis into what might be going on. This could also be done via cURL.
For example, on the site below, it has a 301 redirect loop back to itself, which is causing a large chain of faulty redirects. You can follow all the redirects and determine whether or not it’s looping back to itself, or perhaps is an HTTP to HTTPS loop in which we’ll discuss how to solve that further below.
The Redirect Path Chrome extension can also be very useful and provides insights into all of the redirects happening on your site (specific URL or page.
4. Check Your HTTPS Settings
Another thing to check is your HTTPS settings. A lot of times we’ve seen ERR_TOO_MANY_REDIRECTS occur when someone has just migrated their WordPress site to HTTPS and either didn’t finish or set up something incorrectly.
Don’t Force HTTPS Without an SSL Certificate
This is by far the most common reason we see on a regular basis. If you force your WordPress site to load over HTTPS without first installing an SSL certificate, you’ll instantly throw your site into a redirection loop. To fix this, simply install an SSL certificate on your WordPress site.
It’s also recommended to run an SSL check. SSL/TLS certificates require not only your main certificate but also what they call intermediate certificates (chain) to also be installed. These need to be set up properly.
We recommend using the free SSL check tool from Qualys SSL Labs. It is very reliable and we use it for all Kinsta clients when verifying certificates. Simply head over to their SSL check tool, input your domain into the Hostname field and click on “Submit.” You can also select the option to hide public results if you prefer. It could take a minute or two to scan your site’s SSL/TLS configuration on your web server.
Don’t Use an SSL Plugin, Update your Hard-coded Links
There are some free SSL WordPress plugins, such as the Really Simple SSL plugin that will help you automatically redirect to HTTPS. However, we don’t recommend this method as a permanent solution because third-party plugins can always introduce another layer of problems and compatibility issues. It’s a good temporary solution, but you should really update your hard-coded HTTP links.
We have a great tutorial with 4 easy ways to do a search and replace in WordPress. If you’re a Kinsta client, you can always reach out to our support team to do this for you as well.
Check HTTP to HTTPS Redirects on Server
It could very well be that perhaps the HTTPS redirect rules on your server were misconfigured.
Redirect HTTP to HTTPS in Nginx
If your web server is running Nginx, you can easily redirect all of your HTTP traffic to HTTPS by adding the following code to your Nginx config file. This is the recommended method for redirecting WordPress running on Nginx.
server { listen 80; server_name domain.com www.domain.com; return 301 https://domain.com$request_uri; }
We use Nginx for everyone here at Kinsta. The great news is that you don’t have to worry about this. If you need to add a redirect simply open up a quick support ticket and let us know which domain you need to be redirected. We then add it to the Nginx config for you.
Check Out Our Video Guide to Redirects:
Redirect HTTP to HTTPS in Apache
If your web server is running Apache, you can easily redirect all of your HTTP traffic to HTTPS by adding the following code to your .htaccess file. This is the recommended method for redirecting WordPress running on Apache.
RewriteEngine On
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTPS} off
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://%{HTTP_HOST}%{REQUEST_URI} [L,R=301]Check For Too Many HTTPS Redirects
Perhaps you simply have too many HTTPS redirects. You can easily check your site to see how many redirects it’s using with a tool like Redirect Checker. Here is an example below of redirects that are not set up correctly which are easily spottable using an online tool. You can see that there are duplicate HTTPS redirects happening on both the www and non-www versions.
5. Check Third-Party Services
ERR_TOO_MANY_REDIRECTS is also often commonly caused by reverse-proxy services such as Cloudflare. This usually happens when their Flexible SSL option is enabled and you already have an SSL certificate installed with your WordPress host. Why? Because, when flexible is selected, all requests to your hosting server are sent over HTTP. Your host server most likely already has a redirect in place from HTTP to HTTPS, and therefore a redirect loop occurs.
To fix this you need to change the Cloudflare Crypto settings from Flexible to either Full or Full (strict). If you’re a Kinsta client, make sure to also check out our steps on how to install an SSL certificate while using Cloudflare.
You can use their Always Use HTTPS page rule to redirect all users to HTTPS without creating a loop. Another thing to watch out for with Cloudflare is their forwarding URL redirection rules. Be careful not to create a redirect where the domain points to itself as a destination. This can cause an infinite redirect error, and the affected URLs will not be able to resolve.
Using Cloudflare DNS Only
If you only want to use Cloudflare’s DNS, and not their proxy/WAF service, then you should make sure your DNS records are set to “DNS Only.” The clouds will appear as “grey” instead of “orange.” You configure this under the “DNS” tab in the Cloudflare control panel.
6. Check Your WordPress Site Settings
Another thing to check is your WordPress site settings. There are two different fields you’ll want to ensure are set correctly, and not pointing at a wrong domain or are mismatched. Another common mistake is that you’re not using the correct prefix to match the rest of your site, www or non-www. Sometimes people migrate hosts, or change domains and these can get changed without you realizing it.
- WordPress Address (URL): The address to reach your blog.
- Site Address (URL): The address of your WordPress core files.
Both should match unless you are giving WordPress its own directory.
Most likely though you aren’t able to access your WordPress dashboard. So what you can do is override the settings above by inputting the values in your wp-config.php file.
The wp-config.php file is typically located at the root of your WordPress site and can be accessed via FTP, SSH, or WP-CLI. To hard-code WP_HOME and WP_SITEURL, simply input the following code towards the top of the file, changing the values to reflect your domain.
define('WP_HOME','https://yourdomain.com');
define('WP_SITEURL','https://yourdomain.com');Below is an example of what your wp-config.php file might look like afterward.
Or if you prefer, here are two additional ways you could change your WordPress URLs without access to your admin dashboard:
Once you manually set it, you can browse to your site to verify whether or not it fixes the redirect loop.
Multisite
If you’re changing domains on a multisite, make sure to also check the wp_blogs table. We’ve seen people do a search and replace wrong and cause an infinite redirect loop. This is because the network site doesn’t match the subsites.
wp_#_options: Each subsite will have sets of tables that correspond to the blog_id in the wp_blogs table. Go to the wp_#_options table, where # corresponds to the blog_id, and update the “SITEURL” and “HOME” settings in that table.
7. Temporarily Disable WordPress Plugins
When it comes to WordPress, temporarily disabling all your WordPress plugins can be a quick way to spot problems. For example, plugins such as Redirection or Yoast SEO premium let you implement redirects. Sometimes settings or updates to these plugins can conflict with redirects that might already be set on your server, causing a redirect loop.
Remember, you won’t lose any data if you simply disable a plugin. Most likely you can’t access the WordPress admin, so you’ll need login via SFTP to your server and rename your plugins folder to something like plugins_old. Then check your site again.
If it works, then you will need to test each plugin one by one. Rename your plugin folder back to “plugins” and then rename each plugin folder inside of if it, one by one, until you find it. You could also try to replicate this on a staging site first.
8. Check Redirects on Your Server
Besides HTTP to HTTPS redirects on your server, it can be good to check and make sure there aren’t any additional redirects setup wrong. For example, one bad 301 redirect back to itself could take down your site. Usually, these are found in your server’s config files.
Apache .htaccess file
Kinsta only uses Nginx, but if you’re using a WordPress host that is running Apache, it could very well be that your .htaccess file has a wrong rule in it. Follow the steps below to recreate a new one from scratch.
First, login to your site via FTP or SSH, and rename your .htaccess file to .htaccess_old. This ensures you have a backup.
Normally to recreate this file you can simply re-save your permalinks in WordPress. However, if you’re in the middle of an ERR_TOO_MANY_REDIRECTS error you most likely can’t access your WordPress admin, so this isn’t an option. Therefore you can create a new .htaccess file and input the following contents. Then upload it to your server. The following uses the default settings.
# 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 WordPressSee the WordPress Codex for more examples, such as a default .htaccess file for multisite.
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Nginx Config
If your host uses Nginx, this file can be a little trickier as the config file can vary a bit depending on the hosting provider. We recommend reaching out to your host and have them check your config file for anything that might be causing a redirect loop or too many redirects.
If you’re a Kinsta client, you’ll first want to check to ensure you didn’t set up a redirect wrong in our redirect tool. Below is a simple example of a redirect from https://domain.com/ back to itself, that would cause a redirect loop.
This also commonly happens when the location URL is included in both “Redirect From” and “Redirection To.”
For example, the following would cause a redirect loop:
Redirect From: ^/blog/about Redirect To: https://domain.com/blog/about-me
Why? Because once the process reached ^/blog/about, the remaining part -me wouldn’t matter, and it would cause an infinite loop. You have to specify the end of the string and the starter point. Here is what you would do to fix it:
Redirect From: ^/blog/about$ Redirect To: https://domain.com/blog/about-me
The $ character will tell Nginx to stop and match the request only if the string is there exactly, but nothing after it.
And of course, you can always open up a support ticket and we’ll check this for you.
Misconfigured Reverse Proxies
Another common reason for the ERR_TOO_MANY_REDIRECTS error is if you are using a reverse proxy. Reverse proxies can be quite complicated and it’s very easy to send your WordPress site into a redirect loop if misconfigured. Again, if you’re a Kinsta client, our support team can help with this.
Summary
Redirect loops can sometimes be tricky to track down. But hopefully, some of the troubleshooting steps above help you to resolve your ERR_TOO_MANY_REDIRECTS error. If we missed anything, feel free to let us know below in the comments.
Brian has a huge passion for WordPress, has been using it for over a decade, and even develops a couple of premium plugins. Brian enjoys blogging, movies, and hiking. Connect with Brian on Twitter.
Great tutorial and I solved my problem by turning SSL flexible to full. Thank so much!
Great, glad the SSL settings change fixed it for you!
That was really helpful and led me to the solution I needed. Thank you!!
Thanks dude. My website is working like normal again!!
Redirect loops can be frustrating. Glad you got it working again Dany!
Same here … changed ssl from flexible to full got my site working again.
Over 2 hours of scratching my head and then found ezzeddin’s comment above,
tried and it worked. Pheeeww… :-)
Hey Johnny,
We do recommend changing SSL from flexible to full in the steps above. Glad you got it working!
I am soooooooo thankful, I changed my SSL from flexible to full and I successfully logged in. Again thanks!!!!!!
Thanks a KAJILLION.
Chankging from Fleible to Full on Cloudflare certainly did the trick!
So good to sort that little headache out!
Thanks again Brian,
Mark
Very helpful, the wp-config trick worked for me as I had changed the settings to force https and it caused this problem. Thanks!
Glad to hear it worked for you John!
Thanks! Man, the problem on my end was caused by Cloudflare Crypto! Great article! Much appreciated.
I spent more than 24 hours helplessly searching the internet for a solution to this problem and trying out every recommended solution that I could follow with no luck.
And then I decided to do another Google search on my mobile while in bed getting ready to give up for the day and this post happened to be the one I clicked on. Changing my Cloudflare crypto settings from Flexi to Full solved the problem. Thanks a lot you truly saved me.
Site is working after changing Cloudflare SSL setting to full.
Great, glad to hear it! Cloudflare’s crypto settings are often a common cause of the error.
Same here. Big relief. Thank you!
This problem gone away for me by fixing .htaccess file that had http links in it. You need to either comment the lines out with http or correct them to https
Good article. I really helped me solve the problem.
I have problem due to cloudflare and your solution worked. Thanks a Lot.
Thanks for the info. WP Noob here and I made the problem myself.
Great guide, sorted me right out.
Hello there, thank you for the article. Updated the same by changing to full in Cloudflare, but still, the site is not live. updated the WordPress URL and home also and purged too. Please help
Hello Brian,
Thanks for this informative article, much appreciated.
I found out there was an issue regarding this SSL, got it changed from SSL flexible to full and now I am able to log in again.
Hey Prateek!
Glad to hear it worked for you. Cloudflare’s SSL settings are often a common cause of the error.
This is a great article—I truly appreciate all this information. Sadly, my problem with redirects seem to fit NONE of these examples; but it is wonderful to have this as a checklist.
Hey Robert!
Yes, unfortunately, due to so many different setups and configurations out there we might not be able to share every solution. However, if you figure out what was wrong on your site, let us know. We’d love to add it to the post. Thanks
I don’t normally leave comments but I just wanted to say thank you for putting this together! After watching several youtube videos and reading other blog posts that weren’t nearly as in depth I thankfully found your guide. 30 seconds later after making the recommended changes in cloudflare my site was back up and running!
Glad to hear you got it working it Sam! Cloudflare is definitely a common culprit for this error.
Why are all your guides so amazing? I came back to this one to tell you about the Cloudflare Flexible SSL thing, but you already have it. Awesome, as always.
Thanks for coming back to let us know either way James, we appreciate it! Cloudflare Flexible SSL is definitely one of the most common culprits we see causing this error.
Thanks for that. I was playing around with my WordPress blog and then was unable to make any changes to the post due to the ‘wpcomstaging.com redirected you too many times’.
I cleared the cache,cookies, even the browsing history – did not help. Then I tried to make a change to the post on Firefox and it worked- that lead me to believe it was an issue with Chrome so I whitelisted my blog through Settings -> Advanced Settings -> Cookies. Whitelisting/Allo https://myblogname.wpcomstaging.com and it works fine now!
Glad to hear the issue has been resolved!
“Another common mistake is that you’re not using the correct prefix to match the rest of your site, www or non-www.” I have remove www, and this cause permanent redirects. How can i do it right? Why it work only with www prefix? I want make it work with non-www.
Hey Vitalii!
You should be able to do a search and replace on your site and make sure the syntax is the same (whether it is www or non-www) across your WordPress site. Check out our tutorial: https://kinsta.com/knowledgebase/wordpress-search-and-replace/
I was frustrated because of too many redirects issue..
Thanks for Redirect Mapper tool and your killer article
Yes, thanks this works for me. I have changed Cloudflare from flexible to full and problem solved.
Such a frustrating issue but thanks for your tips guys.
What worked for me was:
* Temp removing .htaccess
* Temp change plugins folder name to plugins_old
* Change SSL type in Cloudflare from Flexible to “Full”
I’m glad to hear it has been resolved Rob!
Thanks for this clear and comprehensive article – it helped me resolve most of my redirects issues but still struggling with a final status code of 403.
I miss Kinsta so much! Used Kinsta at a former employer but can’t afford it for my personal sites, sadly. I still get the newsletter and read most of the articles you publish.
Hi April, we have a detailed guide on troubleshooting 403 errors with WordPress. Please take a look hopefully it will provide you the answer.
Also, thank you for your kind words. Hopefully, we can work together in the future!
I don’t usually leave comments but thank you so much. After hours of research and cracking my head you fixed my problem in a minute. I’m grateful. Thank you.
Life saver. Litespeed was storing an infinite redirect in the cache, clearing solved the issue.
Thank you, CloudFlare was the problem in my case.. I needed to switch to Full or Strict mode… T h a n k s !
Thanks a lot for this amazing post. I changed my server but after installing backup I was facing this issue. Thankfully it resolved, my SSL was not configured in the new server. Thanks a lot.
Thank you for your comment Anindya! I’m glad to hear you were able to resolve your SSL issue.
Thank you so much Brian! In my case, setting up WP_SITEURL was the way to solve the problem, but after moving to a dedicated server, there were so many problems, I could’t find the solution right away… Thanks for helping me out on this one ^__^
Best regards from Poland!
I just figured out another solution for those that created a new FB account and got the redirects.
The problem:
I firstly created a new FB account on desktop and when I tried to confirm the account via email address it would then do the redirects
Solution:
Using your mobile, try logging in, if it’s still redirecting then force stop the app and reload the app, confirm email address should appear there and enter it that way.
Log back into desktop and works again.
Very helpful – thank you. Deleting old .htaccess file and adding new did the trick.
You’re a lifesaver. Thank you!