Nextjs15 app router deployed on IIS throws forbidden Access is denied on page refresh

[chukwudinweze]

Summary

Context, I deployed a statically exported Next.js 14 app to IIS. Output was generated using next export, resulting in this structure:

📁 C:\inetpub\wwwroot\Nextjs14App
 ┣ 📁 auth
 ┃ ┣ create-password.html
 ┃ ┗ login.html
 ┣ 📁 dashboard
 ┃ ┣ 📁 setup
 ┃ ┃ ┗ admin.html
 ┃ ┣ 📁 transactions
 ┃ ┃ ┗ transaction-error-log.html
 ┃ ┣ transactions.html
 ┃ ┗ audit-logs.html
 ┣ dashboard.html
 ┣ index.html
 ┣ 404.html
 ┗ web.config

Navigating via links like /dashboard/transactions works fine in the browser. But refreshing that page or accessing it directly throws: You do not have permission to view this directory or page using the credentials that you supplied.

If I manually add .html to the refreshed url (e.g., /dashboard/transactions.html), it works perfectly.

Below is my current web.config in root (C:\inetpub\wwwroot\Nextjs14App\web.config):

<configuration>

  <system.webServer>

    <rewrite>

      <rules>

        <rule name="Rewrite clean URLs to .html" stopProcessing="true">

          <match url="^(.*)/?$" />

          <conditions>

            <add input="{REQUEST_FILENAME}" matchType="IsFile" negate="true" />

            <add input="{REQUEST_FILENAME}.html" matchType="IsFile" />

          </conditions>

          <action type="Rewrite" url="{R:1}.html" />

        </rule>

      </rules>

    </rewrite>

  </system.webServer>

</configuration>

I’ve confirmed:

• IIS rewrite module is installed.
• Permissions are fine (can access files directly).
• Ananymous Authentication is enable
• Page refresh works locally in dev.
• Problem only happens after deploying to IIS.

Additional information

No response

Example

No response

[icyJoseph]

Could you add one more condition:

        <rule name="Rewrite to .html" stopProcessing="true">
          <match url="^(.*)$" />
          <conditions>
            <add input="{REQUEST_FILENAME}" matchType="IsFile" negate="true" />
            <add input="{REQUEST_FILENAME}" matchType="IsDirectory" negate="true" />
            <add input="{REQUEST_URI}" pattern="\.html$" negate="true" />
          </conditions>
          <action type="Rewrite" url="{R:1}.html" />
        </rule>

I think you probably want to map non matches to 404.html