Theme files repeatedly quarantined – AutoRestore procedural steps when manually modifying files

[Didier Ludwig]

Hello. This shoulnd’t be a rant but actually I’m pretty unhappy with BPS Pro. I’m a long-time WordPress user, quite experienced in WP/themes/plugin handling (including WPML, Woocommerce and some other beasts) as well in custom CSS coding (child-themes), and am actually running about 30 client sites with WordPress. Since brute-force logins have raised in the past months, and BSP (free) couldn’t help anymore, I’ve upgraded to Pro and installed it on all sites.

The good news: brute force attacks and admin lockouts have stopped since then.

Now to the bad news. First, I’ve been getting BPS pro alert emails by minutes. Though I went through almost all sites and disabled all alerts I could (which took me a lot of work on 30 sites), they’re still dropping in too frequently. Not talking about Matt Mullenwegs harmless “hello.php” plugin that caused another BPS Pro alert invasion in my mailbox.

My actual issue is with the quarantine feature. BPS pro even quarantines css files and png logos from my child theme. Can’t write a line of CSS and upload it without getting another email alert (and the file blocked, of course). Actually, the only way for me to work on a site is by deactivating BPS Pro during that time.

Shure everything has a 5-clicks-only-solution and is documented somewhere in the hundreds of support pages of AIT. But I’m website admin/designer/maintainer and not security expert. BPS Pro may certainly be a useful tool that adds much security to my sites, but I don’t have either the time nor the nerves to read through thousands of lines of text and fiddle with try&error all the time. Even when clicking just any of the BPS Pro buttons to save, delete or restore anything, I get an additional prompt with even more text and explanations, warnings, or whatever AIT wants to tell me. It’s endless. For me, BPS Pro is lightyears away from what could be considered as a userfriendly software. It comes more like a software ‘from techies, for techies’, and I’m getting to a point where I believe I’m not techy enough for it.

Didier

[AITpro Admin]

BPS Pro AutoRestore|Quarantine (ARQ IDPS) is a unique and very advanced security feature and nothing like it exists in any other WordPress plugins.  A lot of people have problems with ARQ IDPS when they first get BPS Pro because the ARQ IDPS concept is different from anything else that exists in any other WordPress plugins.  So where we have failed is that we are not getting folks to the ARQ IDPS Guide forum topic at first BPS Pro installation.  What we need to do is make that the #1 priority right after the BPS Pro Setup Wizard has been run so that folks understand what ARQ IDPS is, how it works and how to do things like manually edit website files on their website.  We will figure out how best to get folks to the ARQ IDPS Guide forum topic in BPS Pro 12.9.

Please take 10-15 minutes to read the ARQ IDPS Guide forum topic:  https://forum.ait-pro.com/forums/topic/autorestore-quarantine-guide-read-me-first/.  I have copied the ARQ Guide help section below that specifically pertains to your question about ARQ procedural steps when manually editing/modifying website files.

AutoRestore|Quarantine Manual File Editing/Uploading Procedural Steps
AutoRestore|Quarantine (ARQ IDPS) is a real-time file monitor that monitors all of your website files for any changes. When manually uploading or modifying files or folders with FTP use these simple procedural steps to avoid having those files autorestored and/or quarantined. If files are sent to Quarantine then use the Restore File option in Quarantine to restore those files. ARQ is amazing, but it cannot tell who you are if you are manually modifying or uploading files or folders outside of your WordPress Dashboard – that is not possible.

1. Turn AutoRestore Off on the AutoRestore page.
2. Manually upload files or manually modify/edit files or folders.
3. Click the appropriate AutoRestore Backup Files button: Root Files, wp-admin Files, wp-includes Files or wp-content Files Backup Files button or run the Setup Wizards.
4. Turn AutoRestore back On.

BPS Pro Video Tutorials Link: https://forum.ait-pro.com/video-tutorials/

[AITpro Admin]

Also you can choose to exclude folders from being checked by ARQ IDPS.  Example:  If you frequently edit child theme files manually then you can exclude your child theme folder from being checked by ARQ IDPS. And of course you can choose not to use ARQ IDPS on a website by turning it Off and choose the ARQ Cron Override On|Off setting > ARQ Cron Override On to completely disable the ARQ Cron check.

AutoRestore|Quarantine steps for creating wp-content folder and single file exclude rules
http://forum.ait-pro.com/forums/topic/autorestore-quarantine-guide-read-me-first/#autorestore-exclude-rules

AutoRestore|Quarantine Exclude Folders or Files Video Tutorial
https://forum.ait-pro.com/video-tutorials/#autorestore-quarantine

[Didier Ludwig]

Thanks for the answer. Ehmm, that won’t take me 10-15 minutes but many hours to read (and understand!) the Read-me-first page. But I’ll try it 😉

Didier

[AITpro Admin]

Just read the top 4 paragraphs of the AutoRestore|Quarantine Guide forum topic.  You do not need to read past the “ARQ procedural steps when manually editing/modifying website files” help info since the rest of the help info is more about technical details of the inner workings of ARQ IDPS.  The other links are either simple step by steps instructions.  ie do step 1, 2, 3… or the video tutorial link which is a visual aid to doing the simple step by step instructions.

[Didier Ludwig]

…have already checked 1-2-3-4 with  wp-content files.. works… thx 🙂

[AITpro Admin]

Great!  I just added a “divider” to the ARQ IDPS Guide forum topic.  So that we can use that as a designated “placeholder” or “reference point” when we recommend that folks read the “general help info” help section.  ARQ IDPS is the most misunderstood feature in BPS Pro because it is very unique and nothing like ARQ IDPS exists in any other WordPress plugins.  The concept itself is very foreign to most people.

### END General Help Info About ARQ IDPS – BEGIN Technical Details About ARQ IDPS ###

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