Reasons for getting a “404 not found” error message

There are several reasons why a server returns a 404 not found error

The server does not find the resource

When a server returns a 404 error, it means that this server was unable to find a resource. This resource can be a picture file like .jpg, .png, an HTML page (like .html), a PDF file or a php file. Whatever the type of file, the server will return a 404 error if it does not find the file.

Malformed URL:

If there is a spelling error in the URL, the server will be unable to find the resource and return a 404 error page. That’s why it is important to check the pathname to avoid any spelling error.

Server problems with some characters:

Sometimes, due to a bad server setting, server are unable to find a picture or a resource. I think about the French acute accent (é) or the german umlaut (ü). There are many special characters like those ones in Czech, Hungarian, Icelandic, Estonian, Romanian and many other languages... The following URL could fail because of this issue: “http://yourdomain.com/étrange-vision.html” or “http://domain.com/über-is-here.html”.

Wrong path

It is possible that the directories that were mentioned in the path name aren’t the right ones. For example: the request pahname is “/jojo/filename.php” in reality the pathname is “/jojo/g/filename.php”.

Case-sensitive path

Some servers have the abilities to make path case-sensitive. For example, apache servers may return a 404 error page when receiving the request to get “/myFilename.php” while the resource is “/myfilemame.php”.