How to fix the “Press This” 404 Error

- by

If you’re not already using Press This, maybe now’s a good time to start. Press This is a for you if you’d like to share excertps from other websites on your own site. It’s a simple Javascript bookmarklet that opens a new window with a link to the site you’re on. It then lets you add pictures, text and post it to your site – just as if you’re writing a new post. It’s genious! Find it under “Tools” and drag the link to your browser bar – no installation needed, it’ll only be a simple bookmark.

However, on some sites the new window brings up a 404 error, indicating that something’s amiss. Turns out that WordPress is getting confused about certain mod-rewrite rules or something… Whatever the reason: Fret not, there’s an easy solution to fix this (thanks to Blogmum and the WordPress Forum for these instructions).

  • Right-click the Press This link on your browser bar, and select “properties”
  • You’ll see a long line of javascript code in the location box
  • Find the following code:
u='+e(l.href)+'
  • Change it to this:
u='+e(l.href.replace(/\//g,'\\/'))+'
  • Tada – Press This is working now. Hurra!

Please note that you might find it easier to copy the entire line of code into a text editor, search for the string and then post it back into the Properties section.

Happy Pressing 😉



If you enjoy my content, please consider supporting me on Ko-fi. In return you can browse this whole site without any pesky ads! More details here.

21 thoughts on “How to fix the “Press This” 404 Error”

  1. Thank you so much!!! I was very excited to learn about Press This from a friend, but didn’t think I’d be able to use it because it wouldn’t work the theme I’m using. I just tried what you suggested and it worked great! 🙂

Leave a Comment!

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.