Title: Backwards Compatible Permalinks
Author: Chris A. a11n
Published: <strong>பங்குனி 11, 2019</strong>
Last modified: பங்குனி 11, 2019

---

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![](https://ps.w.org/backwards-compatible-permalinks/assets/banner-772x250.png?rev
=2048062)

This plugin **hasn’t been tested with the latest 3 major releases of WordPress**.
It may no longer be maintained or supported and may have compatibility issues when
used with more recent versions of WordPress.

![](https://ps.w.org/backwards-compatible-permalinks/assets/icon-256x256.png?rev
=2048062)

# Backwards Compatible Permalinks

 By [Chris A. a11n](https://profiles.wordpress.org/aprea/)

[Download](https://downloads.wordpress.org/plugin/backwards-compatible-permalinks.zip)

 * [Details](https://ta-lk.wordpress.org/plugins/backwards-compatible-permalinks/#description)
 * [Reviews](https://ta-lk.wordpress.org/plugins/backwards-compatible-permalinks/#reviews)
 * [Development](https://ta-lk.wordpress.org/plugins/backwards-compatible-permalinks/#developers)

 [Support](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/backwards-compatible-permalinks/)

## Description

Backwards Compatible Permalinks helps prevent 404 errors when switching between 
permalink structures.

It achieves this by appending a set of backwards compatible post rewrite rules. 
This ensures posts are still accessible at their previous permalink after the permalink
structure is updated.

#### Example

Let’s say your permalink structure is set to “Month and name” and you have a post
titled “I Love WordPress.” That particular post would live at `https://example.com/
2019/03/i-love-wordpress/`.

But what if you wanted to switch to the “Post name” permalink structure and have
your post live at `https://example.com/i-love-wordpress/` instead?

You could but this would result in the existing post permalink 404ing when visited.
Which is problematic if the previous URL was bookmarked or shared on social media.

With Backwards Compatible Permalinks installed your post would be accessible at 
both the old and new permalink structures:

 * `https://example.com/2019/03/i-love-wordpress/`
 * `https://example.com/i-love-wordpress/`

#### Caveats

 * This plugin does not work retroactively. i.e. you must have the plugin installed
   and activated prior to switching permalink structures before backwards compatibility
   will work.
 * Currently only standard posts are supported.
 * Backwards compatibility is not supported between certain permalink structure 
   updates. This is due to a clash between permalink structure regex matching.
 * Backwards compatibility is only provided between the most recent permalink structure
   update. i.e. you cannot change your permalink structure 3 times and have backwards
   compatibility across all 3 structures.

#### Deactivate or uninstall

After deactivating or uninstalling this plugin please ensure you visit Settings 
> Permalinks in the WordPress admin area to flush your rewrite rules.

#### Contributing

Contributions are [welcomed on GitHub](https://github.com/aprea/backwards-compatible-permalinks).

### From within WordPress

 1. Visit ‘Plugins > Add New’.
 2. Search for ‘Backwards Compatible Permalinks’.
 3. Activate Backwards Compatible Permalinks from your Plugins page.

### Manually

 1. Upload the `backwards-compatible-permalinks` folder to the `/wp-content/plugins/`
    directory.
 2. Activate the Backwards Compatible Permalinks plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu 
    in WordPress.

## FAQ

  Why is my old post URL not redirecting to the new URL?

This is currently not supported, the post will be accessible at both URLs. I agree
that this isn’t the ideal behaviour but it was too tricky to support redirects while
also ensuring query parameters and “/page/xx” and “/comment-page-xx” modifiers were
respected during the redirect. The good news is that the canonical tag will always
point to the new URL so there shouldn’t be any SEO ramifications.

  Does this plugin provide access to any actions/filters?

A single filter is available. You may use the `aprea_back_compat_permalink_structure`
filter to provide a backwards compatible permalink structure, e.g. `/%year%/%monthnum%/%
day%/%postname%/`.

This is helpful if you updated the permalink structure prior to installing this 
plugin.

  The plugin is not working for me!

I’m terribly sorry! You may want to check the caveats section to see if any apply
to your situation. Otherwise feel free to post in the support forums.

## Reviews

There are no reviews for this plugin.

## Contributors & Developers

“Backwards Compatible Permalinks” is open source software. The following people 
have contributed to this plugin.

Contributors

 *   [ Chris A. a11n ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/aprea/)

[Translate “Backwards Compatible Permalinks” into your language.](https://translate.wordpress.org/projects/wp-plugins/backwards-compatible-permalinks)

### Interested in development?

[Browse the code](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/backwards-compatible-permalinks/),
check out the [SVN repository](https://plugins.svn.wordpress.org/backwards-compatible-permalinks/),
or subscribe to the [development log](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/log/backwards-compatible-permalinks/)
by [RSS](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/log/backwards-compatible-permalinks/?limit=100&mode=stop_on_copy&format=rss).

## Changelog

#### 0.1.0

Initial release.

## Meta

 *  Version **0.1.0**
 *  Last updated **7 வருடங்கள் ago**
 *  Active installations **Fewer than 10**
 *  WordPress version ** 4.8 or higher **
 *  Tested up to **5.1.22**
 *  PHP version ** 5.6 or higher **
 *  Language
 * [English (US)](https://wordpress.org/plugins/backwards-compatible-permalinks/)
 * Tags
 * [permalink](https://ta-lk.wordpress.org/plugins/tags/permalink/)[permalinks](https://ta-lk.wordpress.org/plugins/tags/permalinks/)
   [url](https://ta-lk.wordpress.org/plugins/tags/url/)[urls](https://ta-lk.wordpress.org/plugins/tags/urls/)
 *  [Advanced View](https://ta-lk.wordpress.org/plugins/backwards-compatible-permalinks/advanced/)

## Ratings

No reviews have been submitted yet.

[Your review](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/backwards-compatible-permalinks/reviews/#new-post)

[See all reviews](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/backwards-compatible-permalinks/reviews/)

## Contributors

 *   [ Chris A. a11n ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/aprea/)

## Support

Got something to say? Need help?

 [View support forum](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/backwards-compatible-permalinks/)