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normally with a 404 error the site will be redirected to theme/404.php. I'd like to the home page instead. I tried

ErrorDocument 404 http://www.example.com

but it doesn't work. How can I solve this issue?

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  • A redirection with a 404 status code doesn't exist. Also, the file 404.php from a WordPress theme is the template loaded for requests that return a 404 status, no redirection to 404.php file occurs. I think you are confused about what HTTP status codes are and the difference with redirections.
    – cybmeta
    Oct 8, 2015 at 13:03

1 Answer 1

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A 404 should never be a redirect. A redirection status begins with 3, not with 4.

You can either include the index.php (or home.php or front-page.php) in your 404.php or just remove the 404.php from your theme. Then WordPress will use the index.php.

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  • It's false that removing the 404.php file will show the index.php. Have you tried it? Oct 8, 2015 at 12:36
  • @DanielMuñozParsapoormoghadam See the link in my answer: When no 404.php has been found, index.php is used.
    – fuxia
    Oct 8, 2015 at 12:39
  • Do you really understand the code you are linking there? Because below of if (is_404() && $template = get_404_template()): there is a fantastic elseif calling the get_search_template() function, which will return you a 404 error, again, since it's not finding the string you are supposedly searching. And yes, I tried it. Oct 8, 2015 at 12:52
  • @DanielMuñozParsapoormoghadam you are totally wrong. See the link in the answer again and study the code carefully.
    – cybmeta
    Oct 8, 2015 at 13:11
  • @DanielMuñozParsapoormoghadam The elseif matches only on search pages. This is never true on a 404 page. Quite the opposite: a search without matches results in a 404.
    – fuxia
    Oct 8, 2015 at 13:22

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