How You Might See the 404 Error
404 Not Found error messages are frequently customized by individual websites, so keep in mind that the 404 error may show up in just about any way imaginable depending on what website it's shown from.
Here are some common ways in which you might see the HTTP 404 error displayed:
- "404 Error"
- "404 Not Found"
- "Error 404"
- "HTTP 404"
- "Error 404 Not Found"
- "404 File or Directory Not Found"
- "HTTP 404 File Not Found"
- "404 Page Not Found"
404 Not Found error messages can appear in any browser and in any operating system.
The 404 Not Found error displays inside the Internet browser window, similarly to webpages.
Cause of HTTP 400 Errors
A 404 error is an HTTP status code that means that the page you were trying to reach on a website couldn't be found on their server.
Technically, an Error 404 is a client-side error, implying that the error is your mistake, either because you typed the URL in wrong or the page has been moved or removed from the website and you should have known.
No matter the reason for the 404 error, there is plenty you can do to try to get to that page you were after:
How To Fix the 404 Not Found Error
- Retry the web page by clicking the refresh/reload button or trying the URL from the address bar again. The 404 Not Found error has been known to appear on occasion even if there is no real issue so a simple refresh will often load the page you were looking for.
- Check for errors in the URL. Often times the 404 Not Found error appears because the URL was typed wrong or the link that was clicked on points to the wrong URL.
- Move up one directory level at a time in the URL until you find something. For example, if www.w.com/a/b/c.htm gave you the 404 Not Found error, move up to www.w.com/a/b/. If you get nothing here, move up to www.w.com/a/. This should lead you toward what you're looking for or at least confirm that it's no longer available.
- If you move all the way up to the website's main page, try to run a search for the information you're looking for. If a search function isn't available, try finding your information by using links from this page to dig deeper into the site.
- It's also possible that you simply have the wrong URL - entirely. You might be trying to access a webpage that exists as another name.
When you're this lost, the best course of action is to search for the page at a popular search engine, like Google. Chances are you'll find the page you're looking for.
- Finally, if all else fails, you may want to attempt to contact the webmaster for information on where you might locate the page you're looking for. The webmaster of most Internet sites can be reached via email at webmaster@website.com, replacing website.com with the actual website name.
Errors Like Error 404
The following error messages are related to the 404 Not Found error because they're all client-side errors:
400 Bad Request | 401 Unauthorized | 403 Forbidden | 408 Request Timeout
Several server-side HTTP status codes also exist, like the popular 500 Internal Server Error, 502 Bad Gateway, and 503 Service Unavailable, among others: List of HTTP Status Code Errors.
