I have been battling proper setup of the rewrite rules provided in .htaccess
(no not everybody using Apache servers)

now I see that apparently mod rewrite can be turned off ?
https://www.zenphoto.org/screenshots/zenphoto-admin/options-general.jpg.html

However I cannot access the pictured setup page (or any other page) because of issues with the rewrite rules.
I assume there is a way to turn off mod rewrite via a config or settings file somewhere ???
I found zp-core/zenphot_cfg.txt file but the option is not there

The backend pages don't use modrewrite so you should be able to access them. The main URL yourdomain.com/admin is rewritten but you can use yourdomain.com/zp-core/admin.php instead.

There are rewrite rules for a few other server systems on our user guide that perhaps are of help:

• https://www.zenphoto.org/news/nginx-rewrite-rules-tutorial/
• https://www.zenphoto.org/news/lighttpd-rewrite-rules/

However since we don't use or test these we don't know if they still apply. But we gladly update them.

Okay, cleared my cache/cookies and when I try to use that backendpage I still get the "too many redirects" error !!

using developer tools it appears to be bouncing back and forth between "admin.php" and "admin-upload.php"

So, can I somehow access that option in a different way ?

You did try the /zp-core/admin.php URL directly? There should be no redirections and there is no modrewrite involved.

using developer tools it appears to be bouncing back and forth between "admin.php" and "admin-upload.php"

I really have no idea what is going on your server… Those are totally different pages…

The only way is to look into the database itself otherwise. See the options table and look for an entry for "mod_rewrite" or "modrewrite" (don't know the writing offhand right now). But I doubt that it will chagne your redirect issue.

What server type are you using actually?

I am using Abyss web server:
https://aprelium.com/

Sorry, I never heard of it before, so I really cannot help here. Zenphoto is aimed at standard (even shared) webhosting using Apache and compatible. I think your best chance is to ask their support.

Aprelium/Abyss apparently ignores .htaccess files. It has its own config file for rewrite conditions.
You probably already checked their extensive URL Rewriting Tutorial
If that's too complicated there is help available to convert Apache rewrite conditions to Aprelium/Abyss conditions. You can send the file to be converted to support[ad]aprelium.com
Also see: https://aprelium.com/support/standard/
From their forum: [i]htaccess files are only for Apache. So you have to convert their URL rewriting rules or ask us for help (just send us the file and we'll convert it for you.)[/i]

Thanks, yes, I've read the tutorial and have been working with their support team on this (I have paid support).

BTW, I searched the zenphoto setup options table for option names that contain "mod" or "rewrite", I don't see the option to disable mod rewrite as shown in the screen shot

Great news...I wiped my zenphoto installation...including the database and started over...things seem to be working now

I can only think that when I first setting up my web server config I did it wrong, then did the zenphoto setup and the result was a bad zenphoto installation caused by my web server configuration.

So now that my web config was fixed, I needed to redo the zenphoto install

Great you figured it out!