URL no longer works after updating from J3 to J4

[rordonezgarcia]

I have a Joomla v3.9 website which had its editors create many articles that have links to other articles. These links are retrieving a 404 error after updating to Joomla v4.3.

These links created in v3.9 have their URL value on this format:
{categoryId}-{categoryAlias}/{articleId}-{articleAlias}

Links created under v4.3 have their URL value on this format:
index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id={articleId}&catid={categoryId}

Since creating a link from an article to another article is a common use case, I imagine this problem has happened to many Joomla users going from 3 to 4.

What options are available that do not involve going through all the articles and editing the URLs manually?

[imanickam]

My thoughts:

(a) It looks like, in the Global Configuration, the option Search Engine Friendly URLs is set to No and the option Use URL Rewriting is set to No

(b) Whether the .htaccess file of Joomla 3 has been replaced with the .htaccess file that comes with Joomla 4

(c) In the screen "Articles: Options" (Content > Articles > Options > Tab Integration > Section Routing) the option Remove IDs from URLs is set to No (the default is Yes)

Note:
If possible, I would suggest going with the default setting of Joomla, especially for the option Remove IDs from URLs.
If needed, you could change all the URLs to reflect the new routing scheme. Extensions such as ReReplacer (https://extensions.joomla.org/extension/rereplacer/) would be of help. Once you are happy with the outcome, you could make permanent change in the database using the extension such as DB Replacer (https://extensions.joomla.org/extension/db-replacer/).

[rordonezgarcia]

Hi imanickam. I appreciate you are passing by to drop a reply.

(a) I have them both on, and tried all possible scenarios. Do you mean to say that if these values were both Yes, the old url would work?
(b) .htaccess is the new j4 one
(c) I have tried both values also

Note:
Perhaps those extensions will be useful. I will give it a try.

[imanickam]

Links created under v4.3 have their URL value on this format:
index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id={articleId}&catid={categoryId}

If the Global Configuration options Search Engine Friendly URLs and Use URL Rewriting are set to Yes, the URL created would not have the full url (i.e. index.php?option=...) you have mentioned.

Are these urls created for menu items?

Also, check whether Apache setting mod_rewrite and the php module mod_rewrite is loaded. The following URL would be of help to check this.
https://docs.joomla.org/How_to_check_if ... _server/en

[shumisha]

Hi

Also make sure you have the Joomla SEF system plugin enabled. Without it, no SEF URLs regardless of the options in the global configuration.

If possible, I would suggest going with the default setting of Joomla, especially for the option Remove IDs from URLs.

Do not do that under any circumstances on any site that has more than a few pages, even if you set up redirects. Google already undexed your old URLs, you do not want to change them.