Browsing to permalink prefix results in 404

Question

I have set my blog permalink as follows:

/news/%postname%

This works. Going to any post, such as /news/test, will serve the single.php as expected. I can also browse to a category such as /news/category/uncategorized, which brings up the archive.php. All good.

However, when I browse to /news (which I was expecting to also bring up archive.php) I get a 404 and I don't understand why? I was at least expecting to be served the index.php not a 404.

Ideally I have the archive.php template served by browsing to /news but to solve the 404 issue first would be great.

Any suggestions much appreciated.

PS: I was hoping to prevent to create a dummy /news page.

PPS: Yes, I always clear my permalinks by saving them from the Settings panel.

Answer 1

if you're trying to make the news serve as a homepage you should use the Site address (URL) in the WordPress general setting options.

and of course you'll getting an 404 error page since the news/ in your permalink serve as a directory which is refer to your server directory that not connected with the WordPress itself. try to create a news directory in your public_html and add some index page to see what happen.