Folder Lock – folders locked, unable to view website, 403 error

[bill]

Hello, AITpro.

Is there a way to unlock the root folders to my websites? I’m working on a new website and after installing BPS Pro, I received a notice on my dashboard pertaining to F-Lock/Root folders. I had (personally) never seen that notice before, so I clicked the link. It took me to a page with all of my databases/root folders and it asked (not told) if I wanted to lock them. Well, I did and everything locked up. On all every site. There’s no front or back end…. just 403 errors. Can this be undone?

Please advise. Thank you.

[AITpro Admin]

@ bill – Did you lock files on the F-Lock > File Lock page or folders on the F-Lock > Folder Lock page?

[bill]

It wasn’t the typical F-Lock page with the Root Folder and other options for that particular website. It was a different page (new to me) that had a listing of all of my other accounts Root Folders. Edit: The Folder Lock page.

[AITpro Admin]

EDIT|UPDATE: Thanks for going back and editing your previous forum replies with “Folder Lock” instead of “files being locked”. 😉

@ bill – I’m not exactly sure what you did based on your description of the problem, but I’m going to assume you locked all of your WordPress folders.  Either way the steps below will fix whatever problem occurred.  Also I think you may have installed an older BPS Pro version instead of a current new BPS Pro version.  Folder Lock is a bit of menace that was requested by someone many BPS Pro versions ago and I’m pretty sure we are going to get rid of it at some point.

1. Use FTP or your Web Host Control Panel File Manager and rename the /bulletproof-security plugin folder to /__bulletproof-security.
2. Unlock your WordPress folders:  wp-content, wp-admin and wp-includes.  To unlock the folders change the folder permissions from 400 to 755 folder permissions.
3. Login to your site.
4. Rename the /__bulletproof-security plugin folder back to /bulletproof-security.
5. This next step needs to be done as quickly as you can do it before Folder Lock locks the folders again:
6. VERY Quickly go to F-Lock > Folder Lock page > select Folder Lock Off > click the Save Folder Lock Cron Options button.
7. Unlock all of your website folders.  Since Folder Lock is already turned Off I recommend you leave it turned Off.  If you would like to know how Folder is supposed to be used then click Folder Lock Read Me help button.

[bill]

Thank you for your response…

Yes, it was definitely the Folder Lock page. Interestingly, I had upgraded to 12.3 last night. Re: your instructions: I am familiar with the files and how to execute the steps, but I’m having an issue locating the permissions. I’m presently using the “original” GD WordPress linux setup with its own, built-in FTP Manager. Again, I am familiar with the numeric permissions, and I have seen them on FileZilla for example, but there is only a “privacy” option that offers Read, Write and Execute (Directory) with checkboxes next to each.

Edit: The Read, Write and Execute (Directory) checkboxes are under “advanced permissions“

[AITpro Admin]

7       5     5
 user   group  world
 r+w+x  r+x    r+x
 4+2+1  4+0+1  4+0+1  = 755

[bill]

Not sure I follow the last reply… I can enter the code above somewhere?

[AITpro Admin]

Owner  [x]R [x]W [x]X
Group  [x]R [ ]W [x]X
Others [x]R [ ]W [x]X

[bill]

Ok, I Gotcha now! Its only two (2): web user and owner however. Trying now….

[bill]

Update: I changed the (Edit: BPS) folder (Edit: Name) and just set the permissions and I’m still locked out (403).

[AITpro Admin]

You changed which folder(s) permissions?  All of them?  wp-content, wp-admin and wp-includes?  Did you already do all of the other steps that I posted above? If you locked all of your folders under your hosting account then you need to unlock all of them.

[bill]

I did steps 1 and 2 for the website that I used to lock all of the folders… I couldn’t get to step 3 because of the 403 forbidden message.

Edit: I locked them through the latest website I was working (not my hosting account) — straight from the WP/BPS Pro dashboard… and I only changed the permissions for the folders associated with that site to try to get back in(to that site).

Do I need to do all the folders, per website, to get in the newest site’s backend?

[AITpro Admin]

Just send me an FTP login to this site so I can what the problem is.  Send the FTP login info to:  info at ait-pro dot com.

[bill]

Ok. Sending…

[AITpro Admin]

Bill actually fixed this problem himself using these steps:  http://forum.ait-pro.com/forums/topic/folder-lock-folders-locked-unable-to-view-website-403-error/#post-30728  but for some reason the problem still appeared to be occurring after doing step #2, which was probably some sort of Browser caching issue/problem.  After checking the folder permissions via FTP and checking the site itself via HTTP everything was ok.  So this is a confirmed working solution to fix the problem scenario where all website folders are locked with F-Lock > Folder Lock.

Thanks for the donation Bill!  Very much appreciated.  🙂

[Author]

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