Can’t add new site or edit/add users inside Network Admin panel “The link you followed has expired.”

mikeh 2019-10-27 04:51:15 UTC #1

Keywords: WordPress Multisite - AWS - Technical issue - Other
bnsupport ID: 9234f5cf-0651-54ad-05f6-f55d662ec948
Description:
I think my problem may be similar to this:

https://community.bitnami.com/t/cant-add-new-site-or-edit-add-users-inside-network-admin-panel-the-link-you-followed-has-expired/69243/7

The solution given there is:
This issue was found in the database and wp-config file where the primary site's URL was incorrect after running the Bitnami bncert-tool created which created redirects from . to www.

(Although I don't think I ran the bncert-tool on this Wordpress multisite installation.)

I'm not clear what I need to do to fix this issue. Do I need to add www to the primary site's URL, in the database and wp-config file?

Thank you!

mikeh 2019-10-27 15:01:45 UTC #2

In the database I found both home and siteurl had www

In wp-config.php, there was no www in the define for DOMAIN_CURRENT_SITE.

I first tried adding the www in wp-config, and restarted Apache. When I tried to go to /wp-admin/network/ (by clicking on My Sites > Network Admin > Sites in the upper left) i got an error screen:

This page isn’t working www.woo-hoo.us redirected you too many times. Try clearing your cookies. ERR_TOO_MANY_REDIRECTS

Then I tried removing www in both places and got the same error as soon as I tried to go to the site.

Returning the settings to their original state (www in the database, no www in the wp-config), I'm back to the initial problem: After filling in the new site address, title and admin email and clicking Add Site I get:

The link you followed has expired. Please try again.

BTW I had executed sudo reboot before the problem started -- because of a message that displayed when I logged in to the server, something about needing an update. Maybe that's where the problem started?

michiel 2019-10-28 12:04:35 UTC #3

Hi @mikeh,

Did you configure the domain for the main blog as described in this guide?

https://docs.bitnami.com/general/apps/wordpress-multisite/configuration/configure-wordpress-multisite/#configure-the-domain-for-the-wordpress-multisite-main-blog

Could you tell me the exact steps to reproduce the error?

Regards,
Michiel

mikeh 2019-10-28 13:41:04 UTC #4

Did you configure the domain for the main blog as described in this guide?

Yes.

Could you tell me the exact steps to reproduce the error?

Go to woo-hoo.us
(I don't have to log in, but I guess it's logging me in automatically)
In the upper left
My Sites > Network Admin > Sites
At the top click the Add New button
Fill in the three fields and click the blue Add Site button at the bottom.

Thanks, @michiel!

michiel 2019-10-29 08:02:08 UTC #5

Hi @mikeh,

Could you tell me the current values of the domain in the following database tables:

wp_options table: "siteurl" and "home" options
wp_blogs table: domain option

The easiest way to check them is through PhpMyAdmin.

If any of these starts with www, could you change them to the domain without www?

Regards,
Michiel

mikeh 2019-10-31 02:36:51 UTC #6

Thank you, @michiel

Both the siteurl and home options were:
http://www.woo-hoo.us
So I changed those to:
http://woo-hoo.us

domain option in wp_blogs was:
woo-hoo.us
So I just left that as it was.

Now going to woo-hoo.us in Chrome, I get:
This page isn’t working woo-hoo.us redirected you too many times. Try clearing your cookies. ERR_TOO_MANY_REDIRECTS

Clearing all cookies for woo-hoo.us doesn't seem to have any effect.

mikeh 2019-10-31 02:51:09 UTC #7

In wp-config.php:
define( 'DOMAIN_CURRENT_SITE', 'woo-hoo.us' );

michiel 2019-10-31 16:53:12 UTC #8

Hi @mikeh,

I'm forwarding the issue to another team, they will update the topic or request additional information.

Regards,
Michiel

jariza 2019-11-01 08:47:16 UTC #9

Hi @mikeh

This is what's currently happening:

1 - When you access woo-hoo.us, it redirects you to https://woo-hoo.us:

$ curl -LI woo-hoo.us
HTTP/1.1 302 Found
Date: Fri, 01 Nov 2019 08:27:54 GMT
Server: Apache
X-Frame-Options: SAMEORIGIN
Location: https://woo-hoo.us/
Content-Type: text/html; charset=iso-8859-1

Then, when you access https://woo-hoo.us, it redirects you to https://www.woo-hoo.us:

HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently
Date: Fri, 01 Nov 2019 08:27:55 GMT
Server: Apache
X-Frame-Options: SAMEORIGIN
Location: https://www.woo-hoo.us/
Content-Type: text/html; charset=iso-8859-1

Finally, when you access https://www.woo-hoo.us, it redirects you to https://woo-hoo.us/. In other words, you go back to step 2 and, therefore, it's an infinite loop.

HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently
Date: Fri, 01 Nov 2019 08:27:55 GMT
Server: Apache
X-Powered-By: PHP/7.3.5
Expires: Thu, 19 Nov 1981 08:52:00 GMT
Cache-Control: no-store, no-cache, must-revalidate
Pragma: no-cache
X-Redirect-By: WordPress
Set-Cookie: PHPSESSID=g8mk4qs1pulg8v7ibc1rk5rtd7; path=/
X-Frame-Options: SAMEORIGIN
Vary: Cookie
Location: https://woo-hoo.us/
Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8

So. What's the problem? It shouldn't redirect you from https://woo-hoo.us to https://www.woo-hoo.us. Let's try to fix it.

AFAIK, you updated the tables wp_options and wp_blogs (siteurl, home; and domain). Could you check the wp_site and wp_sitemeta tables too? They might have references including www. yet.

Best regards,

Juan Ariza

mikeh 2019-11-03 02:57:56 UTC #10

Thank you, @jariza

Ended up solving the problem by adding www in:
1) wp-config.php
define( 'DOMAIN_CURRENT_SITE', 'www.woo-hoo.us' );
2) Three columns in two database tables (via myphpadmin):
a) wp_options table
siteurl
home
b) wp_blogs table
domain
(not seeing siteurl or home here)

(The wp_site table is empty.)

Thanks again, issue resolved!

jariza 2019-11-04 07:46:53 UTC #11

Hi @mikeh

I'm very glad your were able to solve the issue by configuring properly wp-config.php and the database.

I proceed to close this thread as solved. Please do not hesitate to open a new one if you need further help.

Best regards,

Juan Ariza.

jariza 2019-11-04 07:47:00 UTC #12

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