Infinite Redirect Loop without trailing slash, please help

[debc]

I've been searching for an answer all day, I can't seem to figure this out.

When I Fetch my blog as Google(http://www.mysite.com/blog) WITHOUT a trailing slash at the end, I get this error:

The page seems to redirect to itself. This may result in an infinite redirect loop

**HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently**

When I Fetch my blog as Google WITH the trailing slash at the end(http://www.mysite.com/blog/), it is fine without errors.

When I pull it up in a browser comes up fine both with and without the trailing slash.

My .htaccess file in the root directory contains this:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} ^[A-Z]{3,9}\ /index.htm\ HTTP/
RewriteRule ^index.htm$ http://www.mysite.com/ [R=301,L]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^mysite.com$
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.mysite.com/$1 [R=301,L]

My .htaccess file in the blog directory contains this:

BEGIN WordPress

<ifmodule mod_rewrite.c="">RewriteEngine On
 RewriteBase /blog/
 RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^./index.php/. [NC]
 RewriteRule ^index.php/(.*)$ http://www.mysite.com/blog/$1 [R=301,L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /blog/index.php [L]</ifmodule>

END WordPress

Do I have something incorrectly coded in these .htaccess files that could be causing this? Or is there something else I should look at? Thank you for any help!!

[GeorgeAndrews]

Try here. Maybe that will help.

Edit: Pretty sure it's your root directory .htaccess file that is causing the looping. I'd start with that.

[SEOKeith]

Yuk mod_rewrite...

Try:

RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} ^[A-Z]{3,9}\ /index.php\ HTTP/
RewriteRule ^index.php$ http://www.example.com/blog/ [R=301,L]

You may wish to add $1 on the end

RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} ^[A-Z]{3,9}\ /index.php\ HTTP/
RewriteRule ^index.php$ http://www.example.com/blog/$1 [R=301,L]

Let me know if that stops it looping...

Keith

[debc]

Thanks Keith.  I tried it and it is still looping.  Do you think it has something to do with having 2 different .htaccess files?  Should I combine them into just one in the root directory?

[SEOKeith]

Sorry, I completely misread this question (I missed the part where you said you had to .htaccess files!).

Yes put one .htaccess file in the root dir, add the blog rewrite rule to the bottom of the file.

Let me know how it goes.

Keith

[debc]

Thanks George.  Please forgive me, I am a newbie at this!  I took a look at the link you provided, and I don't fully understand what they are explaining.  What I did understand is that having 2 htaccess files in different directories caused a problem with their code.  Do you think combining the two files into one on the root directory will make a difference for me?

[debc]

Thanks for your response Keith, I'll give it a try and let you know!

[SEOKeith]

Yes as I said above

[GeorgeAndrews]

Hello Debora,

Make sure you keep copies of your .htaccess files before you make changes and, if you can, use a test site to test your changes first before you make changes on your live website.

I'm not sure how your website is set up so I don't know if combining the two files will accomplish what you are looking for.

Whatever you do, make sure you have backups.

[SEOKeith]

Hey Debora,

Any luck?

Keith

[debc]

I combined the htaccess files (putting the blog rewrite rule to the bottom of the file) now having just one htacess in the root directory and unfortunately it did not work. When I tried it, all the links on the blog would not work, they were all "page not found" so I reverted it back to what I originally had... Here is what the combined htaccess file looked like:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} ^[A-Z]{3,9}\ /index.htm\ HTTP/
RewriteRule ^index.htm$ http://www.example.com/ [R=301,L]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^example.com$
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.example.com/$1 [R=301,L]

<ifmodule mod_rewrite.c="">RewriteEngine On
 RewriteBase /blog/
 RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} ^./index.php/. [NC]
 RewriteRule ^index.php/(.*)$ http://www.example.com/blog/$1 [R=301,L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /blog/index.php [L]</ifmodule>

Thanks again for any insight!