call to controller function from email message not found - .htaccess

Question

First let me say I'm new to CI and bootstrap and had very minimal exposure to php before this project. That said, I did browse the questions for a solution to my sitiation. This seems to be a popular one.
In my case, the controller is visible and running for the rest of the site, this is it's only error. All other pages are working. My forgot password email is working end-to-end just fine and it's using the same concept except it does not pass a parameter.
I'm implementing an email verification system during registration. I got most of my code from the CI demo and everything is working except the return to the site from the email message. When the user clicks the register button in the email, they are redirected to the proper location with the reg_key attached.
After clicking the email message, this is what the browser has as its url:
https://mr_marvel.com/quest/users/confirm_email/d83df0d58637d4fca2d52dcdbb3ccb4f
The user receives a 404 message even though the function is available in the controller.
Here is the route.php entry:
$route['users/confirm_email'] = 'users/confirm_email';
Here is the function in Users.php that the email is trying to call:
public function confirm_email($reg_key) {
// from email
if($this->uri->segment(3)) {
$reg_key = $this->uri->segment(3);
if($this->user_model->verify_email_key($reg_key)) {
$data['message'] =
'<h1 align="center">Your Email has been successfully verified, now you can login</h1>';
}
else {
$data['message'] = '<h1 align="center">Invalid Link</h1>';
}
}
else {
redirect('users/login');
}
}
here is my .htaccess (residing in the home folder where folder application resides:
And .htaccess contents:
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond $1 !^(index\.php|assets|images|js|css|uploads|favicon.png)
RewriteCond %(REQUEST_FILENAME) !-f
RewriteCond %(REQUEST_FILENAME) !-d
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ ./index.php/$1 [L]
I've scoured google searches but can't find anything that directly corresponds to my issue.
Hoping someone can spot my issue.
A tremendous thank you for checking it out!
Dennis

Answer 1

Well, looks like I found the answer. For all of those who sometimes encounter enigmatic errors, be sure you use the server your programming to, it's an easy mistake to make if your working both at the same time.
In my case, from my prod server localhost, I was sending an email out with a link to my production server which does not have any of the email registration code/forms yet. As soon as I fixed the change to http: from https: and localhost from my prod server, it worked perfectly.
Hope my mistake helps someone in the future.
Dennis