React App /index.html doesn't work directly

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If I try to reach my react app by its url https://mysite.netlify.com it works. However if I type Shawn Stringfield I see a blank page. I don’t see any error in the console. I also check the source code and html is there, it just doesn’t render. I have following redirects file

/* /index.html 200

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Without being able to debug or see code, I can take a guess of what is happening here. This is expected behavior with the rewrite rule for a SPA.

The rewrite /* /index.html 200 is doing the following:

  • Looks for anything after / and ignores it (unless the asset exists)
  • Does not change the path input (no matter what it is)
  • Gives you the index.html file instead of the path shown.
  • Does NOT ignore the file if it exists (index.html does exist)
  • If the asset exists, response is the asset (needed for images, css, js, etc)

What is wrong then?

The React app is resolving the route as /index.html and doesn’t have a resolution for that path.

How do you fix it?

Make sure Pretty URLs is turned on for the site in Netlify, so the path is taken care of automatically.

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If for some reason the site can’t have pretty urls turned on, you can always make a redirect for it yourself prior to the rewrite rule.

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