ERR_TOO_MANY_REDIRECTS

The short version: ERR_TOO_MANY_REDIRECTS means your browser is caught in a redirect loop: one address sends it to another, the second sends it back, and round it goes until the browser gives up. The cause is almost always the website's own configuration. The usual suspect is a Cloudflare "Flexible" SSL setting clashing with an origin HTTPS redirect, though mismatched website URLs and conflicting redirect rules do it too.

Key takeaways

• ERR_TOO_MANY_REDIRECTS shows up when a page keeps handing the browser off to another address, on and on, until the browser hits its redirect ceiling and refuses to go further.
• The fault sits in the website's configuration nearly every time. Usually that means a Cloudflare Flexible SSL mode at war with an origin HTTPS redirect, www and non-www rules that disagree, or rewrite rules that duplicate each other.
• Chrome and Firefox stop at roughly 20 redirects, Safari at about 16. curl -IL runs into the same wall and quits with exit code 47, and it is the quickest way to watch the addresses chase each other.
• There is not much a visitor can do beyond clearing that website's cookies or trying an incognito window. When it loops everywhere, the fix belongs to the website owner.
• Browsers cache permanent redirects (301, 308) hard, so a broken one keeps looping after the fix lands until you clear the caches. Temporary ones (302, 307) tend to sort themselves out.

Error type

Browser redirect-loop error

Whose side

Almost always the website

Fix difficulty

Moderate (website owner)

Common cause

Flexible SSL or conflicting redirects

What does ERR_TOO_MANY_REDIRECTS mean?

A redirect is the browser being told that the page it asked for now lives at a different address. ERR_TOO_MANY_REDIRECTS is what you get when those instructions form a loop: address A points to B, and B points back to A. The browser follows the chain a fixed number of times, and once it crosses that limit it stops and shows the error rather than loop forever. The wording shifts from browser to browser, "redirected you too many times" in Chrome, "the page isn't redirecting properly" in Firefox, but the cause underneath is identical.

This lands on the website almost every time, not on you. The loop comes from how the website, or its hosting and CDN, handle redirects, so as a visitor there is rarely much to do beyond clearing local data. Run the website yourself and the fix is yours: somewhere in the redirect rules, the SSL or proxy settings, or the application configuration. The steps below split along those lines so you can jump straight to the part that fits you.

Full (strict)

Correct Cloudflare SSL mode

1

HTTPS redirect rule to keep

301 / 302

Redirect codes that loop

How the ERR_TOO_MANY_REDIRECTS error appears

The wording changes depending on your browser, device, or server. Here is how this error commonly shows up:

example.com

This page isn't working

example.com redirected you too many times.

ERR_TOO_MANY_REDIRECTS

• Chrome: This page isn't working, [domain] redirected you too many times (ERR_TOO_MANY_REDIRECTS)
• Firefox: The page isn't redirecting properly
• Safari: Safari can't open the page because too many redirects occurred
• Edge: This page isn't working right now / too many redirects

Redirect status codes at a glance

HTTP redirects come in permanent (301, 308) and temporary (302, 307) forms, and a loop happens when any of them points back to an address that eventually points to itself.

Common redirect-loop causes and how to fix each

A loop is always two rules pointing back at each other. These are the usual pairs and the one-line fix for each.

What causes ERR_TOO_MANY_REDIRECTS?

• A Cloudflare (or other CDN) SSL mode left on Flexible while the origin server also forces HTTPS. The proxy reaches your server over HTTP, your server redirects it back to HTTPS, and the request loops. This is the single most common cause.
• Conflicting HTTP-to-HTTPS redirects, where more than one layer (a plugin, .htaccess, and a server-level rule) all try to force HTTPS at once and contradict each other.
• A www versus non-www loop, where example.com redirects to www.example.com and the www version redirects straight back.
• In WordPress, a mismatch between the WordPress Address (URL) and Website Address (URL) settings, often left behind by a domain or HTTPS migration.
• An SSL, caching, or redirect-management plugin firing off its own redirects that clash with the rest of the website.
• Conflicting or duplicated rewrite rules in .htaccess on Apache, or in the server block of an nginx configuration.
• Stale or corrupted cookies in your browser that keep replaying an old redirect even after the website itself has been fixed.

How to find the cause fast

1. Reload the page in an incognito window. Loads fine there? Then a stale cookie or cache in your normal browser is the culprit.
2. Feed the URL to a redirect-chain checker, or run curl -IL https://yourdomain.com, to pin down which two addresses loop.
3. Open DevTools and watch the Network tab for the repeating 301 or 302 hops.
4. On Cloudflare, set the DNS record to "DNS only" (gray cloud) to test whether the proxy or SSL layer is what creates the loop.

Terminal

curl -sIL https://example.comHTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently -> /homeHTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently -> /curl: (47) Maximum (50) redirects followed# the URL bounces between addresses in a loop

How ERR_TOO_MANY_REDIRECTS looks from the outside

A basic uptime check slides right past this one. The loop's first hop frequently returns a healthy 200 or 301 before the bouncing kicks in, so a monitor that reads only that first status code keeps calling the website up while real visitors cannot use it at all. To catch the failure you have to follow the entire redirect chain instead of the first response, which is exactly the journey a person taking the link goes through and a shallow check never does.

How to fix ERR_TOO_MANY_REDIRECTS

If you are a visitor

1. Clear the cookies and cached files for that one website, then reload. A bad cookie is the usual reason a single visitor stays stuck in the loop while the website behaves for everyone else.
2. Open the page in a private or incognito window. It ignores your existing cookies and cache, giving you a clean attempt.
3. Try another browser or device. If the page loads there, the trouble is local data in your usual browser, so clear it.
4. Still failing wherever you try it? Then the loop lives on the website's side and only the owner can fix it. To confirm the website is broadly affected rather than just unreachable for you, check Is Website Down?

If you run the website

1. On Cloudflare or any other reverse proxy, switch the SSL/TLS mode from Flexible to Full or Full (strict), provided your origin has a valid certificate. Flexible mode is the classic trigger for this loop.
2. Go through your redirect rules and leave exactly one layer forcing HTTPS. Check .htaccess on Apache or the server block on nginx for duplicated or competing rewrite rules, and strip out the redundant ones.
3. Settle on a single canonical hostname and confirm your www and non-www versions redirect in one direction only, never back and forth.
4. On WordPress, check that the WordPress Address (URL) and Website Address (URL) match and both use the right scheme. Locked out of the dashboard? Set WP_HOME and WP_SITEURL in wp-config.php.
5. Disable your SSL, caching, and redirect plugins one at a time to find the one issuing the conflicting redirect, then reconfigure or replace it.
6. Clear your server, application, and CDN caches after every change so you are testing the live configuration and not a cached copy of the loop. A redirect checker that lays out the full hop chain makes the loop easy to spot.

Still not fixed? Next steps

• Run curl -IL https://yourdomain.com and read the chain. It prints every Location hop and then dies with curl: (47) Maximum redirects followed, naming the two addresses that loop.
• On Cloudflare or any other proxy, flip the DNS record to DNS only (gray cloud) and try again. If the loop vanishes, blame the proxy or its SSL mode.
• Walk through every layer that can issue a redirect: server config, .htaccess, the application itself, and CDN page rules. Exactly one of them should force HTTPS or canonicalize the host. Not two.
• Once you change something, clear the browser, server, application, and CDN caches and retest in a private window. A cached 301 will happily keep replaying the old loop long after you corrected the rule.

Code & configuration

Copy-paste starting points. Replace example.com and the paths with your own, and test changes on staging before production.

Force HTTPS once, with no duplicate rules (.htaccess, Apache)

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTPS} off
RewriteRule ^ https://%{HTTP_HOST}%{REQUEST_URI} [L,R=301]

Fix WordPress URLs when locked out of wp-admin (wp-config.php)

define('WP_HOME', 'https://example.com');
define('WP_SITEURL', 'https://example.com');

See the exact loop

curl -IL https://example.com

How to prevent ERR_TOO_MANY_REDIRECTS

Once the loop is gone, the tougher question is how fast you hear about it next time something breaks. Pulsetic checks your website from multiple locations every 30 seconds and alerts you by email, SMS, voice call, Slack, Discord, Telegram, or webhook the instant it goes down. It will not flag a redirect loop on its own, since a looping page can still return an HTTP 200 at the start of the chain, but it does keep watch on the SSL and certificate problems that so often cause these loops, plus the broader availability picture, so you are not waiting on a visitor to tell you the website is unreachable.

Learn how Pulsetic's uptime monitoring detects this from the outside, across 15+ locations.