Problem:
WordPress Author URLs are redirecting to home page. Bad for SEO.
Root Cause:
It is observed that Yoast SEO plugin’s Author archives settings are causing this issue.
Fix:
1. Goto WordPress Dashboard
2. Goto SEO -> Search Appearance (See pic)
3. Click on Archives tab
4. Goto “Author archives settings”
5. Set “Author archives” to Enabled
6. Set “Show author archives in search results?” to “No”
So, with above settings, you can exclude author archives from search results and also fix “author page redirecting to home page” issue.
reference: https://wordpress.org/support/topic/author-page-redirecting-to-homepage-due-to-yoast-2/