'Too many redirects' means two settings keep bouncing visitors between addresses, often after adding SSL. Nothing is lost; the loop just needs breaking.
What it means
Your browser follows each redirect to a new address, and that address redirects again - forever. WordPress gives up after about 20 hops and shows the error. The loop almost always involves the site URL setting disagreeing with the SSL/HTTPS setting.
Why it happens
It typically starts after enabling SSL, changing domains, or a security plugin forcing HTTPS while the site URL still says HTTP (or vice versa). Two rules point at each other and neither lets the visitor through.
A real example
An online retailer moved from http://example.com to https://www.example.com and added redirect rules in both .htaccess and a plugin. Visitors then bounced between the two rules forever - Chrome showed ERR_TOO_MANY_REDIRECTS while the owner's own browser, which had cached the old redirect, kept working fine. The fix was keeping the redirect in exactly one place. Mixed redirect rules are the single most common cause of this error after a domain or SSL change.
What to do
- Clear your browser cache and any caching plugin cache first - sometimes the loop is cached.
- Check Settings > General: WordPress Address and Site Address must both be https:// if SSL is active.
- Check .htaccess or your host's redirect rules for conflicting HTTP-to-HTTPS and HTTPS-to-HTTP rules.
- If a security plugin is forcing SSL, temporarily disable it via wp-admin or by renaming its folder.
Still stuck? Redirect loops are one of the fastest emergency fixes - usually a settings change, not a rebuild.
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