Resolving Joomla! Navigation/Linking Errors

If you manually install Joomla!^™ on your hosting account, or make changes to the SEO Settings in the application, you might receive the following error when clicking links on your Joomla! site:

Follow the steps below to fix the issue by rewriting the URLs your site uses.

Enabling Your .htaccess File

Joomla! requires an .htaccess file to configure URL rewrites.

Note: If you already have a file named .htaccess in the directory where you installed Joomla!, skip to the next section, Enabling RewriteBase.

To enable your .htaccess file, in the directory where you installed Joomla!, change the name of the .htaccess.txt to .htaccess. For more information, see Managing Your Hosting Account's Files.

Enabling RewriteBase

RewriteBase defines the document root of your application and must be enabled for Joomla! to properly form URLs.

1. Using Editing files, edit your .htaccess file.
2. Locate the line of text:
   # RewriteBase /
   and delete any # symbols in the line before RewriteBase.
3. If you installed Joomla! in a directory besides the hosting account's root, add the directory name after the /, for example:
   RewriteBase /coolfolder
4. Save the changes to the file.

Ensuring Joomla! Uses Search Engine Friendly URLs

Joomla! has Search Engine Friendly URLs enabled by default, but you should make sure they are used to prevent any issues. Using Search Engine Friendly URLs ensures you don't encounter any issues with how Joomla! creates links for your site hosted with us.

1. Log on to your Joomla! control panel.
2. From the System menu, select Global Configuration.
3. For Search Engine Friendly URLs, select Yes.

If you still encounter issues, try selecting Use URL rewriting, as well, which displays on the same page in Joomla!

Note: These directions are based on Joomla! version 3.1. Other versions should have similar settings, but if you have questions, you should review the official Joomla! support forum.