Question

For some reason when I redirect with header("Location") the new page keeps the hash.

So if you’re on example.com/index.html#signup

I redirect with

header("Location: /account.html");
exit;

But then it shows example.com/account.html#signup

Why is this happening and how can I stop it? ie example.com/account.html

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Note:

I am using an .htaccess to redirect file.html to file.php

RewriteRule ^([a-zA-Z0-9-_.]+)\.html$ $1.php [L]

Answer 1

The simple answer to “how do I stop it” is to specify an empty hash in the Location header:

header('Location: /account.html#');

However, this behavior isn’t guaranteed across the board. It seems to work in WebKit and IE9 in my quick test. Nevertheless, you’ve stumbled on a black hole in the HTTP specification.