web.config breaks the themes for sub-directory multisite

Question

We are converting a single wordpress site to a sub-directory network but we can't find any web.config that works correctly. We can never get the theme to work, not even on the root (/) site, as soon as we change the single-site web.config for a multisite one it breaks.

I have been searching for hours and have found several topics where people have found a web.config that works but none works for us, the theme is always broken.

The setup we want is this:

http://www.domain.com/ (main site) http://www.domain.com/en/ (English version of the site)

I did get it working to an extent on my own Apache server except it tried looking for media in /en/media/ when it should just have been /media/. However the host we use use IIS apparently.

Here is one web.config I've tried which lets me access the dashboard for all sites and everything seems to work except for the theme:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<configuration>
<system.webServer>
    <rewrite>
        <rules>
            <rule name="WordPress Rule 1" stopProcessing="true">
                <match url="^index\.php$" ignoreCase="false" />
                <action type="None" />
            </rule>
            <rule name="WordPress Rule 2" stopProcessing="true">
                <match url="^([_0-9a-zA-Z-]+/)?files/(.+)" ignoreCase="false" />
                <action type="Rewrite" url="wp-includes/ms-files.php?file={R:2}" appendQueryString="false" />
            </rule>
            <rule name="WordPress Rule 3" stopProcessing="true">
                <match url="^([_0-9a-zA-Z-]+/)?wp-admin$" ignoreCase="false" />
                <action type="Redirect" url="{R:1}wp-admin/" redirectType="Permanent" />
            </rule>
            <rule name="WordPress Rule 4" stopProcessing="true">
                <match url="^" ignoreCase="false" />
                <conditions logicalGrouping="MatchAny">
                    <add input="{REQUEST_FILENAME}" matchType="IsFile" ignoreCase="false" />
                    <add input="{REQUEST_FILENAME}" matchType="IsDirectory" ignoreCase="false" />
                </conditions>
                <action type="None" />
            </rule>
            <rule name="WordPress Rule 5" stopProcessing="true">
                <match url="(^[_0-9a-zA-Z-]+/)?(wp-(content|admin|includes).*)" ignoreCase="false" />
                <action type="Rewrite" url="{R:2}" />
            </rule>
            <rule name="WordPress Rule 6" stopProcessing="true">
                <match url="^([_0-9a-zA-Z-]+/)?(.*\.php)$" ignoreCase="false" />
                <action type="Rewrite" url="{R:2}" />
            </rule>
            <rule name="WordPress Rule 7" stopProcessing="true">
                <match url="." ignoreCase="false" />
                <action type="Rewrite" url="index.php" />
            </rule>
        </rules>
    </rewrite>
</system.webServer>
</configuration>

Here is the web.config that the Wordpress network setup page suggest, this one makes the /en/ site dashboard 404:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<configuration>
<system.webServer>
    <rewrite>
        <rules>
            <rule name="WordPress Rule 1" stopProcessing="true">
                <match url="^index\.php$" ignoreCase="false" />
                <action type="None" />
            </rule>
            <rule name="WordPress Rule 2" stopProcessing="true">
                <match url="^([_0-9a-zA-Z-]+/)?wp-admin$" ignoreCase="false" />
                <action type="Redirect" url="{R:1}wp-admin/" redirectType="Permanent" />
            </rule>
            <rule name="WordPress Rule 3" stopProcessing="true">
                <match url="^" ignoreCase="false" />
                <conditions logicalGrouping="MatchAny">
                    <add input="{REQUEST_FILENAME}" matchType="IsFile" ignoreCase="false" />
                    <add input="{REQUEST_FILENAME}" matchType="IsDirectory" ignoreCase="false" />
                </conditions>
                <action type="None" />
            </rule>
            <rule name="WordPress Rule 4" stopProcessing="true">
                <match url="^([_0-9a-zA-Z-]+/)?(wp-(content|admin|includes).*)" ignoreCase="false" />
                <action type="Rewrite" url="{R:1}" />
            </rule>
            <rule name="WordPress Rule 5" stopProcessing="true">
                <match url="^([_0-9a-zA-Z-]+/)?([_0-9a-zA-Z-]+/)?(.*\.php)$" ignoreCase="false" />
                <action type="Rewrite" url="{R:2}" />
            </rule>
            <rule name="WordPress Rule 6" stopProcessing="true">
                <match url="." ignoreCase="false" />
                <action type="Rewrite" url="index.php" />
            </rule>
        </rules>
    </rewrite>
</system.webServer>
</configuration>

Neither works. Help would be really appreciated.

Answer 1

I asked our hosting provider for help and they modified the first web.config to work.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<configuration>
  <system.webServer>
<!--    <security>
      <authentication>
        <basicAuthentication enabled="false"/>
        <anonymousAuthentication enabled="false"/>
      </authentication>
    </security>-->
    <rewrite>
      <rules>
            <rule name="WordPress Rule 1" stopProcessing="true">
<match url="^index\.php$" ignoreCase="false" />
<action type="None" />
</rule>
<rule name="WordPress Rule 2" stopProcessing="true">
<match url="^([_0-9a-zA-Z-]+/)?files/(.+)" ignoreCase="false" />
<action type="Rewrite" url="wp-includes/ms-files.php?file={R:2}" appendQueryString="false" />
</rule>
<rule name="WordPress Rule 3" stopProcessing="true">
<match url="^([_0-9a-zA-Z-]+/)?wp-admin$" ignoreCase="false" />
<action type="Redirect" url="{R:1}wp-admin/" redirectType="Permanent" />
</rule>
<rule name="WordPress Rule 4" stopProcessing="true">
 <match url="^" ignoreCase="false" />
 <conditions logicalGrouping="MatchAny">
 <add input="{REQUEST_FILENAME}" matchType="IsFile" ignoreCase="false" />
 <add input="{REQUEST_FILENAME}" matchType="IsDirectory" ignoreCase="false" />
<add input="{URL}" pattern="([a-zA-Z0-9\./_-]+)\.axd" />
</conditions>
 <action type="None" />
 </rule>
<rule name="WordPress Rule 5" stopProcessing="true">
<match url="^[_0-9a-zA-Z-]+/(wp-(content|admin|includes).*)" ignoreCase="false" />
<action type="Rewrite" url="{R:1}" />
</rule>
<rule name="WordPress Rule 6" stopProcessing="true">
<match url="^([_0-9a-zA-Z-]+/)?(.*\.php)$" ignoreCase="false" />
<action type="Rewrite" url="{R:2}" />
</rule>
<rule name="WordPress Rule 7" stopProcessing="true">
<match url="." ignoreCase="false" />
<action type="Rewrite" url="index.php" />
</rule>




      </rules>
    </rewrite>
  </system.webServer>
</configuration>