.htaccess issues again causing 403 Forbidden Error

  • Hello;

    I have updated WooCommerce to v3.8.1. I had it working fine with my previous version for years.

    As we all know, there is an .htaccess file located in the woocommerce_uploads folder that is set to ‘deny from all’ which protects direct URL downloads.

    My file download method in WooCommerce is set to ‘Force Downloads’.

    My users cannot download their purchased products as they are receiving the standard ‘403 forbidden’ white page.

    If I set my file download method in WooCommerce to ‘Redirect’, the products can be downloaded fine but they also become unprotected and can be downloaded from a direct URL link.

    The woocommerce_uploads folder permissions is set to 755 and the .htaccess permissions is set to 644. All products in that folder are set to 644.

    I cannot remove the .htaccess as I do not want people to download from the direct URL link.

    WooCommerce should be working properly the way I have it set up, no?

    I would really, really appreciate any help to figure out what I am doing wrong so that I can get this working as it should be.

    Thanks,
    -Richard

    • This topic was modified 4 years, 11 months ago by rich95.
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  • Hi Richard, could you solve this problem? I have the same problem and I am struggling to find a fix for it.
    Martins

    • This reply was modified 4 years, 8 months ago by ASR Martins.
    Thread Starter rich95

    (@rich95)

    Unfortunately, I didn’t know how to solve it and I had to get my developer to fix it, which they did. But I’d be at a loss to l ow what they did.

    Richard

    Thanks, Richard,
    I had the same problem quite a while ago and this time it was the last straw.
    I have decided to send the download links to people manually with “We Transfer”. There is a lot of control with this method (A lot you can do to secure the download links)
    I use woocommerce as always but I unticked the downloadable section within the product pages (everything is still there in case I want to go back to it one day), and I added a little message notifying them that I will send the download links as soon as the transaction is processed and completed.
    That way I do not have to worry about people stealing my books
    Thanks for your reply,
    Martins
    (It is a pity that Automattic did not solve this problem for us because many people have been struggling with this for a long time)

    • This reply was modified 4 years, 8 months ago by ASR Martins.
Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)
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