Your robots.txt is a file, so WordPress cannot change it

What we observed

A real robots.txt file exists in your site’s root folder. We couldn’t tell which plugins, if any, are trying to generate one through WordPress — but that doesn’t change the outcome. While that file exists, WordPress has no say over what /robots.txt returns.

Why it matters

Most WordPress sites have no robots.txt file. WordPress generates one on request and plugins add their rules at that point. A file on disk skips all of that: the web server sends the file directly and WordPress never runs.

So any robots-related setting, in any plugin, including this one, is decoration until the file is gone. That is worth knowing before you spend time in a settings screen that cannot affect anything.

How to fix it

First, look at what the file actually says:

curl -s https://example.com/robots.txt

Then decide:

• If the file is doing nothing useful — it is empty, or contains only rules you would have set anyway — delete it and let WordPress and your plugins take over.
• If the file contains rules you need, keep it and edit it directly. The file is the only thing that counts; ignore every plugin’s robots settings screen, because it has no effect.

Common reasons a file exists: an SEO plugin’s file editor wrote one, a host created it when setting up your site, a migration brought it across, or a previous developer added it by hand.

How to check it worked

If you deleted the file, https://example.com/robots.txt should still show something — that is WordPress generating it now, which is what you want. If you get a 404 (page not found), go to Settings → Permalinks and check it isn’t set to “Plain”. WordPress can only generate robots.txt when permalinks use one of the other options.