How to Fix WordPress Failed to load resource 404 status error.

I’m back with another weird WordPress fix for likely a problem encountered by many, whether you ever admit to it or not. 😜

At the request of a customer that’s been with us for 10 years and counting now, I’m working on updating and fixing a few aged items relating to their website’s user experience.

Everything was going well until I attempted to upgrade the website to use a more lightweight and intuitive plugin to create a “before and after” slideshow of their project work. 🤨

To complicate things a bit, I unknowingly experimented with a few discontinued WordPress plugins that are no longer supported.

So wish WordPress developers would update their plugins more often with discontinued support messages. 😤  But I digress.

Each time I would install, activate, configure, and implement an image gallery or slideshow plugin for WordPress, I encounter the same error:

Failed to load resource: the server responded with a status of 404 (Not Found)

Using Chrome Developer Tools, I discovered the message listed above for various image, javascript, and CSS files supposedly related to the newly active WordPress plugin.

What could be the issue? 🤔 I initially thought the plugin was to blame. So, I proceeded to deactivate and delete each WordPress plugin in search and hope of another plugin to use without error.

I may be a slow learner, but it wasn’t until the 4th or 5th WordPress plugin that my light bulb came on, especially witnessing the plugin working without error in a local host environment operating on my MAC and a few other customer websites.

But what could be the issue causing 404 status errors to pop up when I know and can see with my own eyes that the file path exists? 🤔

First things first, check the spelling of the path. Fortunately, I could spell well this day, and all checked out well. 🤣

Next, permissions. When it doubt, the first place I should have looked with installation and configuration of the initial WordPress plugin was the permissions of the /wp-content/plugins folder.

Sure enough, that was the very culprit causing the 404 status error issue: WRONG FILE PERMISSIONS. 🤯

I don’t know how it happened, but the “plugin” directory permissions were incorrect. I changed the directory to both “755” (recommended) and “777”, and both worked like a charm.  But I settled for using “755” permissions.  🙌👏

And now my customer is happy, and I am too, having solved yet another “Failed to load resource” error message.

I hope this helps you! Feel free to drop a question or comment if you need further assistance.