My memory’s not great on this, but I recall a tweak done between OJS 2.4.8-0 and 2.4.8-2 to correct an escaping issue – and an attendant Apache configuration issue – that could be combining to cause problems here. Try the Apache setting at Ojs 3: Not Found error when downloading Full Issue to see if it has an impact.
The behavior you’re looking for is for / to be translated to %2f in the URLs – if OJS isn’t resolving that URL when you fetch it, then that’s the issue, not the escaping in the first place.
Regards,
Alec Smecher
Public Knowledge Project Team