Directory Password Protection – failed to open .htaccess for writing

[Jeff]

When I created my website on a domain, I password-protected public_html so that it wouldn’t be found by the likes of Google until I was ready for it to go live.  I did this before installing BPS Pro, if that makes any difference.  Well, now I’m ready to go live and I cannot, no matter what I do, remove the password protection.  If I clear the check box in cPanel and click “Save”, I get the message “failed to open .htaccess for writing.”  I figured this had something to do with F-Lock, so I unlocked .htaccess.  All that did was generate a bunch of quarantined files messages.  I was unable to remove the password protection. I decided to deactivate BPS Pro.  Didn’t make a whit of difference.  Do I have to delete BPS Pro so that I can regain control of my website?

I’m so tired and frustrated with this!  Something that should be fairly simple has turned into a nightmare.  What do I have to do to make my website publicly accessible?  Please help.

Jeff

[AITpro Admin]

I assume you are talking about Directory Password Protection so the title of this Forum Topic has been changed to:  Directory Password Protection – failed to open .htaccess for writing.  Do these steps below.

If you are able to login to your site…
1. Turn Off AutoRestore to allow a file to be written to/created by something external like your cPanel so ARQ does not assume this is a hacker externally changing or creating a file on your website.
2. Go to the B-Core > htaccess File Editor tab page.
3. Click the Unlock htacces File button to unlock your Root htaccess file so that something external like your cPanel can write to your root htaccess file.
4. At this point the cPanel failure that was occurring when it should not have been occurring should be cleared. This is a mistake with your host cPanel tool so you might want to mention that to them to fix this bug/problem.
5. You should now be able to move forward from your host cPanel tool bug/error/mistake/failure.

Or if you are unable to login to your site due to your host cPanel error/bug/failure then do these steps…
1. Use FTP and rename the /bulletproof-security/ plugin folder to /_bulletproof-security/
2. Use FTP and delete your root and wp-admin htaccess files.
3. Use your broken cPanel Directory Password Protection tool that is failing and it should now work to remove Directory Password Protection.
4. Make sure you are logged into your website before doing these next steps.
5. Rename the /_bulletproof-security/ plugin folder back to /bulletproof-security/
6. You may or may not see AutoRestore alerts – disregard them and delete any files in Quarantine.
7. Activate Root and wp-admin BulletProof Modes.

[Jeff]

I followed your directions in Part I and was able to uncheck the box for protected directories and to save that option without getting an error message.  I thought I had succeeded but a few minutes later, amidst a flurry of BPS Pro messages, the directory re-locked itself without any action on my part.

So I read part II of your reply and followed those directions. I did not have to use cPanel to do anything – the directory protection box was unchecked and the name of the directory was blank.

As soon as I renamed _Bulletproof-Security back to Bulletproof-Security, the directory locked itself.  So now, I renamed Bulletproof-Security to _Bulletproof-Security and await your instructions on what to do next.  By renaming Bulletproof-Security to _Bulletproof-Security, I’ve disabled it and it no longer is protecting my site.

I’d like to use BPS Pro, as I do on my other two sites, but I’m at a loss as to what to do next.  If Site Ground has a problem with their implementation of cPanel, I need to know what to tell them so that they can address the issue.

Is there any hosting company out there that is worth a hill of beans?

Thanks,

Jeff

[AITpro Admin]

I’m really not sure what is happening on this website.  So instead of trying to figure this out in the forum, send a WordPress Administrator login and an FTP login to this website to: info at ait-pro dot com.  I will also check out the other strange things you mentioned that are occurring with F-Lock or something else mysteriously locking/unlocking files on this website.

[AITpro Admin]

This problem has been fixed.  Required jumping through some hoops and manually editing files via FTP.  So the steps I posted above would not have worked for this particular type of problem.

1. Using FTP, manually edited this root htaccess autorestore file: /wp-content/bps-backup/autorestore/root-files/auto_.htaccess and deleted the BasicAuth Directory password protection htaccess code in that file.
2. Downloaded the auto_.htaccess file, renamed it to .htaccess and uploaded it to your website.

[Jeff]

I really appreciate your quick response and am grateful to know that I didn’t make any stupid mistakes in trying to solve this problem by myself.  I’m not a newbie to websites, but I’m definitely not a css expert who enjoys digging around in code and playing with .htaccess files.  I don’t know of any other plugin that has such great support!  I went to the WordPress support forum and rated BPS Pro 5 stars.  Thank you!

[AITpro Admin]

Thank you Jeff. Very much appreciated! Top notch support is one of our highest priorities that we consider to be a standard and not an extra bonus thing. 😉

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