WP-PageNavi gives me a 404 when using WP Query

Question

I see that there are a lot of similar questions here at WPSE, and I've tried many of the suggestions mentioned trying to solve my problem but with no success.

I have a category called News. In this category I want to run a custom query using WP Query to fetch and display articles, spread out through multiple pages using the plugin WP-PageNavi. I manage to get the plugin to display the links (go back/forward or to a particular page) but when I click on either one I end up with a 404 page.

My permalink settings is "category/post-name/", for example I have "x.com/news/sample-news/. When trying to access let's say "x.com/news/page/2/" it gives me a 404.

Here's the code -

<?php $paged = get_query_var('paged') ? get_query_var('paged') : 1;
$news = new WP_Query( array('category' => 3, 'paged' => $paged, 'posts_per_page' => 4, 'orderby' => 'date', 'order' => 'DESC') );
while ($news->have_posts()) : $news->the_post(); ?>

<article>
<?php the_post_thumbnail( array(466,9999), true ) ?>
<h2><?php the_title() ?></h2>
<h4><?php the_date() ?></h4>
<?php the_content() ?>
</article>

<?php endwhile; if($news->max_num_pages>1) 
if(function_exists('wp_pagenavi'))
wp_pagenavi( array('query' => $news) );?>

Using these plugins: Advanced Custom Fields, WP-PageNavi

Answer 1

This could be a plugin compatibility problem. Have you tried to disable all plugins and see if that solves the problem?

I found this which may also be of help:

http://dre.im/if-pages-return-a-404-after-wordpress-3-1-upgrade/

1. Log in to wp-admin and go to permalinks, click save (this should refresh your permalinks).
2. Check to see if this fixes your permalinks. If not, set to default.
3. Disable your plugins to remove them out of the equation.
4. Log into your server via sFTP/SSH/FTP and find your .htaccess file. It should be located in the root of your WordPress install.
5. Pull the htaccess file down so that you have a local back up. Once you’ve pulled it down, go ahead and delete it from your server.
6. Go back to wp-admin and visit your permalinks page. try enabling custom permalinks. This should remedy the issue and you can go ahead and reenable your plugins.

Answer 2

I've had this issue, mine fixed itself when I renamed the page (my page name was the same as my custom post name)

Answer 3

I have also sufer same problem but i've change page-ID.php like (page-81.php) then its work fine with user friendly permalink and WP Version (3.5.1). you may use page-ID on which file you call it instead template-file, but I am using wordpress-posts for blog and wordpress-pages use pages. its not work in other custom content that register from plugin like (CCTM), after an other content like 'testimonials' i just register custom post in my functions.php theme file and then its work fine with pagination and user friendly permalink and removed from custom content plugin (CCTM).