cannot 301 Redirect via core_url_rewrite table

[joseph_scoggins]

Hello, 

I'm attempting to redirect a large number of 404 errors and crawl anomalies reported via Google Search Console on a client's Magento (1.9.3.2) site.  

I attempted importing a .csv file to the core_url_rewrite database table, containing the columns store_id, id_path, request_path, target_path, and options -- as suggested by this article:

https://www.byte.nl/blog/create-bulk-301-redirects-in-magento

None of the redirects was successful.  I also attempted issuing the redirects via Catalog > URL Rewrite Management > Custom option in the backend of Magento, only to receive repeated "Request Path for Specified Store already exists" error messages, even after deleting the corresponding paths' table rows from the core_url_rewrite database table.  

Is the issue of bulk 301 redirects via the database a viable practice as the above article suggests?  If so, what do I need to do differently?  

[vikkeadude]

Try this:

Take a backup of the url_rewrite table, truncate the table and then  do the CSV import again.

[joseph_scoggins]

Oddly, this didn't work either.  

[joseph_scoggins]

Also, the Catalog > URL Rewrite Management view in the back-end of Magento is cluttered with over 200,000 superfluous redirects which simply point to yet another 'not found' URL.  Truncating the core_url_rewrite table didn't remove these redirect rules, and although the option exists to delete each rule individually, there doesn't appear to be any bulk actions one can take on the Catalog > URL Rewrite Management view in order to delete them all at once.