What is User Not Found? Causes and How to Overcome Them

One problem that is quite annoying, especially in managing WordPress websites, is the user not found error. How not to be annoying, even though it looks trivial this problem can affect the website’s SEO performance. Why is that? Indeed, what does user not found mean?

User not found is an error that makes the browser fail to display a web page. Generally this problem befalls the client side a lot. Even though it is quite common, if user not found is not resolved immediately, website performance can plummet.

To prevent this from happening, you should know what can cause this disorder and how to deal with it. Come on, follow the full discussion below!

What is User Not Found?

Before discussing the causes and how to overcome them, you need to know what it means user not found first. When you encounter a user not found warning, it means that no data or pages are available on the URL link you entered. If translated into Indonesian, then user not found is an arrangement of words in English which means “User Not Found”.

User not found is a warning that informs the condition in which the browser cannot find the page or file being accessed on a website. This is usually triggered by missing or corrupted content.

This means that the user not found problem is very likely to be triggered by writing an incorrect URL or a URL change on a page or content on a website. Not only that, user not found can also be caused by the hosting server.

In this case the error can be triggered by an error on the server hosting the location where a website stores its files. This is the importance of choosing the right hosting service. Apart from getting excellent website performance, proper hosting can also minimize the risk of such disturbances.

Causes of User Not Found

The emergence of the term not found in databases and social media is certainly not without reason. On Instagram social media, user not found information is usually caused by the following:

1. Account deactivated

Account deactivation can be temporary or permanent. Temporary deactivation on Instagram is an action to temporarily deactivate an account, which can be done from the user’s side or the username owner for personal reasons.

When an account is temporarily deactivated, of course the username cannot be found by other users either. So, when you search for the username for the account owner, you will see the display “User Not Found” because the account you are looking for is temporarily deactivated.

However, temporarily disabled accounts can also display information like the following image. Appearance “Instagram User” without displaying the profile of the user you are looking for can be found when you open the user’s direct message, then open the user’s profile.

Account deactivation can also be done permanently by the username owner for personal reasons, or it can also be from Instagram directly, or in other words the username has been blocked from Instagram.

This can happen because social media users may have violated predetermined and agreed rules, this can also happen if there are reports from other users who report to social media related to disturbing usernames, so this can affect the appearance of a notification note found.

2. Change of Username

A username can be someone’s identity on social media, and it is very possible for everyone to change or change their username. The second cause of the appearance of the user not found statement is the change in username by the user.

If you try to enter the old username from the account owner, of course the account will not be found, because that username is no longer used. Therefore, you may encounter user not found information for the account you are looking for.

So, make sure again that the username entered matches the new username, so you don’t encounter the not found statement as before.

3. Account Blocked

Account blocking can be done by other users or from Instagram. Account blocking can also be done for certain reasons, whether it’s the user’s personal reasons, or there are Instagram provisions that have been violated by the user.

If you access a username but cannot find it, then there is a possibility that you have been blocked by the username owner. How to find out if you are blocked or not, you can confirm to friends who also follow the user in question.

If your friends can find the account, then it is very likely that you are blocked by the account owner. If your friend also can’t find the account, it could be that the account is blocked by the relevant social media.

User Not Found on WordPress

Apart from happening on social media, user not found problems can also occur when we are about to log into a website. There are several cases like in the WordPress CMS, you will experience this problem.

There are several reasons for this to happen, but the reasons are almost the same as user not found on social media. However, in the case of the WordPress CMS, this problem can occur due to wrong or incorrect permissions on the wp_usermeta table. In fact, your user is still stored in the wp_user table in the database you are using.

Here are some possible causes of user not found on a WordPress-based website:

1. Wrong URL

The most common and often unnoticed cause is entering the wrong URL link. The URL name is crucial to make it easier to find a website. Although this seems simple, entering a wrong URL can be fatal.

Entering the wrong URL can make you fail to open a website page, which means you can’t get the information or content in it either. Most users often enter letters incorrectly or repeat characters accidentally so that the URL does not lead to the intended site.

2. Caching issues

The browser works fast by relying on a caching system. This system allows the browser to store data from a site that has been visited. When the user will access the same site again, the browser will retrieve a copy of the data from the cache system.

If the data you are looking for is not found, the browser will usually send a user not found warning. Not only that, sometimes the caching system can also store copies of information from website pages that are not found.

This is due to the caching capabilities of the website which can copy data while accessing the website. So, the caching system may copy website data that is not currently available. As a result, when you try to access it again, the website page is still not available.

3. The domain has not propagated to DNS

Domains need some time to propagate to the Domain Name System, both for new domains and for migration domains from other servers. This process aims to update the DNS to the server so that the information held by DNS and all available servers is the same.

If the website domain has not been propagated, this might cause user not found interference. However, that’s not the only possibility. It may be that the domain has been propagated but the process has not been completed. DNS propagation process usually takes a long time. Generally it takes about 2 x 24 hours.

4. Problems with the wordpress theme or plugin

The use of certain themes or plugins can affect the creation of website URLs and permalinks. It may be that users cannot access your website page due to a modification of the URL link caused by using a particular theme or plugin.

This compatibility problem often happens to WordPress website users. Permalink modification due to the use of certain WordPress plugins makes users fail to access your site.

How to Overcome User Not Found

Knowing that there is a user not found means that you can detect errors on pages of your site that cannot be accessed properly. You can solve this problem with the right solution. Here we summarize two solutions that you can try to overcome them:

1. Solution user not found in the browser

If you encounter a user not found warning, it may be that the cause is in the browser. We recommend taking the following steps:

First of all try to clear the cache on your browser first. This step can help you to overcome user not found which is caused by an error in the web browser caching system.

• Restart the web browser

After clearing the cache on the web browser, you can close the web browser window. If necessary, you can also restart the device you are using. After that, turn on the device again and open the web browser to access the website page again.

Before pressing the Enter key to go to the destination website page, check the URL link again. Make sure there are no errors in the URL link entered.

If the steps above still don’t help you access the destination website, change your browsing mode to use incognito mode. This mode can access web pages without storing cache or cookies. As a result, the page displayed is the most recent version of the page.

• Access the website with other devices

Still failing to access the destination page? The user not found problem means that it is not caused by the browser but by the device you are using. Try to access the destination website page using a different device. If it works, it means that the problem is with your device.

2. Solution user not found in wordpress

If you get a report that user not found occurs on one of the pages on your WordPress website, you can handle it in this way. Let’s look at the following steps:

• Check the domain is pointing to the right hosting address

The first step to dealing with user not found on your website is to make sure the domain has propagated to DNS and points to your hosting server. To make sure your website domain is configured correctly, check through the DNS Checker site. Enter the domain name in the column provided so you can find out the status of the propagation and information on where the domain is directed.

It may be that the site page cannot be displayed due to an error in your access permission settings. To change the file access permission rules, you can visit the menu hosting account panels and choose an option Fix File Ownership. Choose a rule default permissions to change access permissions back to normal.

• Disable corrupted .htaccess files

.htaccess is a file that manages access control, redirect URLs, and website performance. In some cases, a corrupt .htaccess file causes site pages to be inaccessible.

If this happens to you, disable this file by going to the Hosting menu on the panel. These file management regulations can be accessed at FileManagerprecisely in public_html folder.

To disable the .htaccess file, right click and do it rename by adding any characters to the file name.

Next create a new .htaccess file by clicking options New Files on FileManager. Create a file called .htaccess and use the .htaccess generator to generate the default code. If so, click create to save changes.