How to Fix a Too Many Redirects Error on Your Website

If your website shows an error like "This page isn't working: redirected you too many times" or "ERR_TOO_MANY_REDIRECTS," it means two different systems are both trying to redirect the visitor, and they're stuck sending the browser back and forth. This is almost always fixable without any technical background, once you know where to look.

What usually causes this

• Your site is set to force HTTPS in more than one place at once, for example a WordPress plugin and a rule in your .htaccess file both trying to do the same job.
• Your WordPress site's address settings don't match how visitors are actually reaching it (www vs non-www, or http vs https).
• A domain or page redirect was set up incorrectly and is pointing back to itself.
• Old browser cookies or a cached version of a previous, since-fixed redirect rule.

Step 1: Rule out your browser first

Before changing anything on your hosting account, open the site in a private or incognito browser window, or try a different device. If the error disappears, your browser has cached an old redirect. Clear your browser's cache and cookies for the site and try again.

Step 2: Check for duplicate HTTPS rules in .htaccess

The most common cause is a redirect rule inside your .htaccess file that conflicts with another redirect (from a plugin, a control panel setting, or a second rule further down the same file).

In cPanel

1. Log in to cPanel and open File Manager.
2. Navigate to your website's root folder (usually public_html, or the specific folder for your domain if it's an addon domain).
3. Make sure Show Hidden Files is enabled in the File Manager settings, since .htaccess is a hidden file.
4. Right-click .htaccess and choose Edit to open it in the code editor.
5. Look for more than one block that mentions RewriteCond with HTTPS or redirects to https://. If you find two separate blocks doing the same redirect, remove one of them and save.

In DirectAdmin

1. Log in to DirectAdmin and open File Manager.
2. Navigate to your domain's public_html folder.
3. Enable the option to show hidden files if .htaccess isn't visible.
4. Click .htaccess and choose the edit option to open it in the built-in editor.
5. Check for duplicate HTTPS redirect rules the same way, and remove the extra one, then save.

Before deleting or editing anything in .htaccess, copy its current contents into a text file on your computer. This file also controls other things like friendly URLs, so you can paste the original back if something else breaks.

Step 3: Check your WordPress address settings

If your website runs on WordPress, a mismatch between its saved address and how visitors reach it is a frequent cause of redirect loops, especially right after installing an SSL certificate.

1. Try logging in to your wp-admin dashboard. If the loop stops you from reaching it, skip to the next step instead.
2. Go to Settings, then General.
3. Confirm that both the WordPress Address (URL) and Site Address (URL) fields use https:// and the same domain format (both with www, or both without).
4. Save changes if you had to correct either field.

If the redirect loop prevents you from logging in at all, open your site's wp-config.php file through File Manager (in either cPanel or DirectAdmin) and add these two lines just above the line that says That's all, stop editing!:

define('WP_HOME','https://yourdomain.com');
define('WP_SITEURL','https://yourdomain.com');

Replace yourdomain.com with your actual domain. This forces the correct address without needing to log in, and you can remove these lines later once the General settings are saved correctly.

Step 4: Check for a conflicting domain redirect

If you've previously set up a redirect for your domain or a specific page, double-check it isn't pointing back to the same URL it's redirecting from, or to another address that redirects back again. Removing or correcting the redirect resolves the loop.

Still not fixed?

If you've checked all of the above and the error persists, reach out to ZIPROF support with the exact error message and the page URL where it happens, so it can be checked directly on the server.

For background on setting up HTTPS correctly from the start, see How to Force HTTPS and Redirect All Traffic to Your Secure Website.