Last Updated On : Apr 13, 2022.

Facing 405 Method Not Allowed Error Detailed Guide

You punched the website URL in the address bar. And you get the 405 methods not to appear in an HTTP response code. Indeed, not the kind of experience you would like to go for. When you request a URL, the 405 method not allowed appears in an HTTP response status code. It indicates that the HTTP method is recognized by the server. However, the server rejects the request as it occurs due to an incorrect URL or an issue with extensions or plugins. 

It can disappoint visitors and leave. Whatever it is, it can leave adverse effects on your website. If visitors start leaving your website in less than 1 min, it may increase your bounce rate. Hence, you can imagine what a visitor feels when not getting the desired requests from a website page.

Now, you’ll be wondering what to do? You can fix the problem yourself. But before you do that, you can go through with 405 error? Is it a common error or not? How’ll you identify 405 errors? What are the effective ways to counter it?

To answer your questions most effectively, you can fix 405 methods not allowed with the following guides :

• Root causes of error 405
• Basic and advanced methods to fix the error
• Technical support of the issue that doesn’t resolve

 

 

What is 405 error?

The 405 method not allowed is an HTTP response error code that occurs when a web browser requests to access your website’s web pages, but the server denies it. The server receives the request and even recognizes it yet, does not provide the web page information. The serve denies the request for a specific HTTP method and shows you a 405 error.

 

How To Identify The 405 Method Not Allowed Error?

The 405 status code usually appears as shown here on the web servers, operating systems, and browsers. Though it may appear in various other forms due to differences in servers and browsers.

Take a glance at the variation on the HTTP 405 method not allowed:

• 405 not allowed
• Method not allowed
• HTTP 405 Error
• HTTP Error 405 – Method Not Allowed
• HTTP 405 Method Not Allowed

On and all the error is on your screen telling you that there is a problem with your website or server. However, what is the issue? and why it remains a mystery to resolve errors?

Now, let’s move to the next section on how to fix 405 methods not allowed

 

405 Methods Not Allowed An Error Server Or Client Side?

The HTTP status error codes in the 4xx category, including the HTTP 405 method not allowed are considered as the client error response.

Though users get confused with classification errors appear as 5xx errors. For example, 503 service unavailable errors. But, it’s a server response error, thereby different from the 4xx errors. 

But, there is a twist. Not all 4xx errors are solely related to the client-side response error.  Hence, the 4xx errors are related to or come up due to the device used at the client-side or web browser. 

Having said that, if you diagnose the error at your end within your website, you may find the error within the script or code. Further, the 405 error also occurs within the phone apps that power the modern User Interface but support the normal web application. 

Yet, it cannot conclude and rule out the fact that the Server is the true culprit of the 405 error. Hence, the server may be misconfigured and handle applications incorrectly.

Before jumping to any conclusion, we’re first looking into the solution. These solutions are both troubleshooting methods to fix the error 405 methods not allowed. We will find it out as soon as we proceed with the methods. So, let’s dive into how to fix 405 methods not allowed.

 

How To Fix The 405 Method Not Allowed Error?

The first thing is to ensure you take everything into account, including the backup security and current website. In that respect, perform a full backup of your website/application, database, and all other related components.

Further, if you understand the key technicalities of the website, you can create a complete application copy. Use this copy on a secondary staging server (that is inaccessible/inactive to the public). Because it offers a safe and secure test ground for all fixes and keeps your live application as it is. Read on to learn the ways how to fix 405 methods not allowed error.

 

Method 1: Comb Through The Url You Entered

The easiest way to invite the 405 not allowed error is to enter an incorrect URL. It may sound a bit silly, but it’s true and is the major cause of several other errors. So when you enter an incorrect URL, you will encounter an error, mainly a 405 error. 

The server denies access to the page and the logic is security. Yes, several websites that don’t get infected with viruses are prone to online threats. They disallow improper URLs requested by the user. It prevents someone from accessing their file, directory, or an attempt to gain access to a private page meant for other users.

Therefore, moving further to other solutions,  you can  enter the correct URL. for that:

• Check the spelling if there is any character missed or misspelled.
• Ensure the numeral value is put correctly.

 

Method 2: Rollback Recent Updates

Updates for any application or website manage the website’s health. It keeps fully functional concerning the latest changes and advancements in technology. Hence, protects it from ongoing bugs and patching security holes.

Besides, updates also lead to some errors. For instance, if you update your WordPress website at a time when the 405 methods don’t appear, the new update becomes the culprit. Since many Content management systems don’t support new updates and start behaving abnormally. So what’ll you do?

In that case, you can restore the previous version of WordPress. But make sure you have the full backup ready before applying this solution.

To perform this task, google “downgrade [PLATFORM_NAME]” and follow the instructions.

Further, the error may also appear due to plugins and themes. Hence, to find out and fix it, please move on to the next solution.

 

Method 3: Uninstall New Extensions, Plugin, And Themes

New extensions, plugins, and themes render greater flexibility and facility to users. It helps in improving the capability of your website but sometimes, it works opposite to what is expected.

Then, some extensions take complete control of your system and then tweak the code like PHP, CSS, HTML, JavaScript, and the database.

Similarly, plugins and themes also feature a website with valuable advantages and make it user-friendly at the other end. An added advantage of themes is that you can skip complex coding processes and the expense of hiring a web developer.

However, these factors also contribute to the HTTP error 405 methods not allowed. This is because adding these factors will help you get an extra advantage that can change the way it operates originally.

In that case, the best way to get rid of the error is to uninstall the extension, plugins, and themes. To do so, you have to navigate to the Plugins section of your WordPress dashboard. From here, you go to the complete list of all the plugins installed on your website.

 

How to check if the issue HTTP 405 method not allowed is resolved?

To ensure and find the culprit, you can uninstall each plugin at a time and check the website for errors. It may take a whole or so, but it will make you aware of what is causing the root issue.

 

Method 4: Double Check The Database Changes

Following the above methods, you may have fixed issues with the extensions, plugins, and themes. But, it does not give assurance for a complete solution to the changes made deep in the codings. Hence, those plugins or extensions can cause an error as soon as you reinstall them.

It is because when you uninstall those plugins or extensions, you only uninstall them. The changes occurred due to their presence and did not revert unless a web developer explicitly coded against it.

In such a situation, it is best to open the database and manually comb through the tables and records. From these records, you can identify the records or tables that have been changed by the extension. Apart from that, you can take help from an expert or technician.

 

Method 5: Check Your Server Configuration

Check to find out on which server software your application is running. It can be any form of Apache or Nginx. It’s because around 84% of the world’s web server software is powered and published on any of these.

Hence, to resolve the HTTP 405 method not allowed, you need to be aware of the server software your website is running on. For that, you need to look for the key file.

 

• Apache Server Software

In the case of the Apache file, the file with an extension ‘.htaccess ‘ will be present within the root directory of your website file system.

If your application is on a shared host, you are likely to have an account associated with your name. In such a scenario, you can use the path mentioned below:

/home/public_html/.htaccess

As you find the ‘.htaccess’ file, open it only in a text editor. Now, look for the lines that use rewrite directives.

These rewrite directives are part of the mod-rewrite module in Apache. Although it is a complex algorithm to understand these rules, the basic logic is that a rewriteCond directive defines a text-based pattern and the pattern matches against the entered URL. Hence, when a visitor requests a matching URL to your site, the RewriteRule will direct the visitor appropriately.

Let’s understand it with an example.

Case: here a simple RewriteRule matches all incoming GET requests to https://www.wordpresssupport.co/users/create and in response shows a 405 not allowed method error code.

RewriteEngine on

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^/users/create/?.*$

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_METHOD} =GET

RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://wordpresssupport.co/users/new$1 [R=405,L]

Here, notice that the value R = 405 flags at the end of the Rewriterule. It shows that the response code 405 exists but the HTTP server did not allow it to execute it.

Therefore, if you see any word Rewrite Rule or RewriteCond directives with the ‘.htaccess’ extension and do seem to belong, then, you need to comment them out. For that, you can use # as a prefix and restart your web server.

 

• Nginx Server Software

Now, let’s turn to the other side of finding the Nginx file. The file is by default named Nginx. conf and placed in one of the common directories.

/usr/local/nginx/conf, /etc/nginx, or /usr/local/etc/nginx

Once you are there, open the Nginx. conf also in a text editor format and search for the directories that use the 405 response code flag.

For instance: let’s take an example of a simple block directive. It configures a server for WordPresssupport.co and a POST request to https://www.wordpresssupport.co/users/create fail with a response code 405:

server {

listen 80;

listen 443 SSL;

Server_name wordpresssupport.co;

location /users/create {

if ($request_method = POST) {

return 405 https://www.wordpresssupport.co/users/create$request_uri;

 

}

}

}

 

Here, again, also there is a line with a 405 response code flag. Similar to Apache, here also comment out any abnormality present. And, then restart the webserver to see if the HTTP error 405 method not allowed appears.

 

Method 6: Debug Your Application Code & Script

After going through the steps, if nothing works fix the error. You should check if the error 405 method not allowed is an error with the custom code of your application.

Debugging the application code becomes essential when you are running common software packages. In that case, you can start by looking into the STABILITY & FUNCTIONALITY of the platforms like – WordPress, Joomla, and Drupal. Though these platforms are well-tested as soon as you make changes in the original script, it may be prone and susceptible to  405 errors.

Remember that in such cases of error, you should go through the proper debugging process. Because a fully functional website is worth the hassle.

 

Method 7: Look Into The Server-Side Logs

The logs are nothing but the history of an application or software. It can be anything from requested pages to which server it is connected to or which database it provides etc. therefore, nearly all web applications have server-side logs.

While an application log provides details of the software, the server log is a bit different. It is related to the actual hardware or peripherals that run the application. These server logs keep records and provide details about the health of connected services and their status. That depends since it can only be about the server also.

 

How to find out the server log?

To identify the server logs, you need to connect to your site via Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP). When you enter into the root directory, a folder named Logs will appear. This folder has your access logs and your website error logs.

• Access.log
• Error.log

You can get the log details using google.

• For CMS : google “logs[PLATFORM_NAME]”
• For a custom application: google “logs [PROGRAMMING_LANGUAGE]” and “logs [PROGRAMMING_SYSTEM]”

 

Winding up

We are hopeful that the above-mentioned steps are helping to fix the 405 methods not allowing error. It is a bit complex and technical at some points. In that scenario, if you are not confident and feel hesitant to apply these fixes, you can go to a web technician having in-depth experience in dealing with such issues. 

Or if you are done and dusted with all the methods facing the 405 error, then the issue is more grave than we think that needs experts’ intervention. In that scenario also, feel free to connect with us. 

Our WordPress Support technicians have loads of experience and expertise in dealing with such websites issues. Because no matter how efficiently you optimize your website, there is still room for error. So rather than going in circles, experts will provide the most secure solution.

 

Related Post: 

• Error 404 not found
• 400 Bad Request Error
• 401 Error
• 500 Internal Server Error
• 503 Service Unavailable Error
• 403 Forbidden Error
• Error 521
• 502 Bad Gateway Error
• 504 Gateway Timeout Error
• 429 Too Many Requests

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