If you log into Cloudflare and see a banner telling you Page Rules are being retired, you're not imagining it. Cloudflare has been pushing customers off the old Page Rules engine for a while now, and new accounts increasingly don't get access to it at all. If your SkyServer-hosted site depends on a handful of Page Rules for caching, redirects, or "always use HTTPS," it's worth moving them over before Cloudflare makes the decision for you.
Symptom
A few things tip people off:
- A "Page Rules is being deprecated" notice at the top of the Cloudflare dashboard, or a banner on the Rules tab pointing you toward "the new Rules products."
- Creating a new Page Rule is blocked, or the option is simply missing on a newer zone.
- Your existing Page Rules still work today, but you're not sure how long that's guaranteed, and you'd rather not find out during a traffic spike.
- Redirects or cache behavior that used to be set in one Page Rule now need to be split across two or three different settings screens, and it's not obvious where each one lives.
Cause
Page Rules were Cloudflare's original, all-in-one way to say "when a URL matches this pattern, do these things" — cache level, edge TTL, forwarding URL, SSL mode, and a dozen other settings could all live in one rule. It worked, but it aged badly: rule order mattered in ways that weren't obvious, the free plan capped you at three rules, and the settings it controlled were a grab-bag that didn't map cleanly to how Cloudflare's platform actually evolved.
Cloudflare has since split that single feature into purpose-built products:
| Old Page Rule setting | New home |
|---|---|
| Cache Level, Edge Cache TTL, Bypass Cache on Cookie | Cache Rules |
| Forwarding URL (301/302 redirects) | Bulk Redirects or Configuration Rules |
| Always Use HTTPS | Configuration Rules (or the zone-level SSL/TLS toggle) |
| Disable Security / Disable Apps / Browser Integrity Check | Configuration Rules |
| Origin Cache Control, Respect Existing Headers | Cache Rules |
None of your Page Rules break the moment you read this — Cloudflare is running a long deprecation window and older zones can usually keep existing rules running for now. But new rule creation is already restricted on a lot of accounts, and once a zone runs out of headroom to edit or add Page Rules, you're stuck either migrating or leaving your caching config frozen in place.
Fix
The cleanest approach is to rebuild your rules in the new products rather than hoping for an automatic migration — Cloudflare does offer a one-click "Migrate to new Rules" prompt on some accounts, but it doesn't always map every setting cleanly, especially chained rules or exceptions. Here's how to do it manually so you know exactly what's in place.
1. Export what you already have
Go to Rules → Page Rules and write down every rule: the URL pattern, the order, and every setting inside it. Screenshot each one. If you have more than two or three, this list is your migration checklist — don't skip it.
2. Recreate caching behavior in Cache Rules
Go to Caching → Cache Rules → Create rule. For a rule that used to say "cache everything for /wp-content/uploads/*":
- Field:
URI Path, Operator:starts with, Value:/wp-content/uploads/ - Then: Cache eligibility → Eligible for cache, Edge TTL → your old value (e.g. 1 month)
Cache Rules evaluate top to bottom just like Page Rules did, and you can reorder them by drag-and-drop. Put your most specific paths above your catch-all patterns.
3. Move redirects to Bulk Redirects or Configuration Rules
For a single old-domain-to-new-domain style forward, Bulk Redirects (under Rules → Bulk Redirects) is actually easier to manage than a Page Rule ever was — it supports wildcards, preserves query strings, and lets you bulk-upload a CSV if you're migrating dozens of redirects at once from a domain move.
For redirects that also depend on other conditions (say, only redirect if the request comes from a specific country), use a Configuration Rule instead, since it can combine multiple match conditions the way your old Page Rule did.
4. Move "Always Use HTTPS" and security toggles
Go to Rules → Configuration Rules → Create rule, match your URL pattern, and toggle Always Use HTTPS, Security Level, or whichever setting your old rule controlled. If the rule applied to your entire zone rather than a specific path, it's simpler to just set it once at the zone level under SSL/TLS → Edge Certificates and delete the Page Rule entirely.
5. Test before you delete anything
Cache Rules and Configuration Rules run independently of Page Rules, so you can build the replacements first and leave the old Page Rules active while you verify. Use curl -I https://yourdomain.in/wp-content/uploads/test.jpg and check the cf-cache-status header — you want HIT on a second request. For redirects, use curl -IL and confirm the 301 target matches what the old rule produced.
Only once the new rules are confirmed working should you go back to Page Rules and delete the old ones, one at a time, re-testing after each deletion.
Prevention
- Don't wait for the deprecation banner to force your hand — audit your Page Rules now, especially if you're on a Free or Pro plan where you're limited to 3 rules and probably reusing them for more than they were designed for.
- Document what each new Cache Rule and Configuration Rule is for directly in its description field. Page Rules never had good labeling, which is exactly why old configs become mysterious a year later.
- If you manage multiple SkyServer-hosted domains behind Cloudflare, standardize on Cache Rules and Bulk Redirects from day one for any new site instead of reaching for Page Rules out of habit.
- Keep an eye on Cloudflare's dashboard notifications — they'll tell you if your zone's Page Rules are scheduled for a stricter cutoff, and it's a lot less stressful to migrate on your own schedule than during an outage.
Frequently Asked Questions
Will my existing Page Rules stop working immediately?
No. Cloudflare is running a gradual deprecation — existing rules on most zones keep functioning for now, but the ability to create new Page Rules is already restricted on many accounts, and that restriction is expected to widen over time.
Do Cache Rules and Page Rules conflict if both are active at once?
They can run side by side while you migrate, but if a Cache Rule and a Page Rule both match the same URL, Cloudflare's precedence order can produce results you don't expect. Treat the overlap period as temporary — verify the new rule, then remove the old one, rather than running both long-term.
I only have one or two Page Rules — do I really need to migrate?
It's worth doing sooner rather than later, mainly because you may lose the ability to edit or recreate that rule later if your zone's Page Rules access is reduced. Two rules take about ten minutes to rebuild in Cache Rules and Configuration Rules.
Does this affect DNS or my SkyServer hosting directly?
No — this is entirely inside Cloudflare's dashboard and only matters if you're proxying your SkyServer-hosted domain through Cloudflare (orange-cloud DNS). If your domain uses SkyServer's nameservers without Cloudflare in front, none of this applies to you.
What if a redirect stops working after I migrate it?
Double-check the match type. Bulk Redirects and Configuration Rules are stricter about exact matching than Page Rules were — a pattern like example.in/old* in a Page Rule needs to become a proper wildcard or "starts with" condition in the new tools, not a literal string match.
