Dashboard Images and Uploaded Images are Broken

So, if I visit https://kevinjamesbond.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Untitled3.png I get a 403 Access Denied error.

I get the same for https://kevinjamesbond.com/wp-content/uploads/ which means I’ll get the same for every single file you have ever uploaded.

Either a security plugin or something in your hosting account’s configuration (possibly hotlink protection) is blocking access to all of your images.

You might want to speak to someone higher up at your hosting provider, because really, the issue should have been very obvious for them.

Wouldn’t disabling all plugins fix the issue if it were a plugin issue?

Hostgator told me that it’s not a hotlink issue; they have no blocks on my site.

Other than that they have no idea. The guy on live chat told me what he thinks it could be, but as I was copying the information, the chat redirected to a survey. I have to wait for them to find a transcript so I can post that here. Ugh.

This wouldn’t possibly have anything to do with a caching plugin would it?

Oh, and can you view that image link now? I was having a 403 too, but it seems to have fixed itself.

It’s weird because I can view images if I go directly to their URL, but they show up like that in that screenshot (broken images). My sister reports the same thing at her house. I’m waiting to hear if she can view the images directly too or not.

The thumbnails load though, because they’re served off Photon. I’m just at a loss. I’m not seeing anything wrong in the .htaccess file, and neither did hostgator.

I’m usually not one to throw it back at a hosting provider, but I’m seeing a custom 403 error page with a big Hostgator mascot on it, so I’m thinking yeah, it’s Hostgator. ??

If deactivating all of your plugin’s didn’t make a difference, I recommend contacting Hostgator again, maybe not via chat this time. They should be able to help you track down the problem, because it’s certainly not WordPress doing it.

I have an open ticket about this issue from a week ago, with no response from them, so live chat was my last resort.

Apparently it’s not a mod_security rule, as they have no mod sec errors. I’ve talked to four live chat persons and none of them can replicate the 403. I need an IP that is getting that 403 for them to replicate the error.

I tried viewing that image through several different IPs online and I see my image every time. You sure you still get a 403?

After 4 or 5 live chats with different people and getting nowhere, I looked through my cpanel to see if there were any IP deny settings that had somehow denied access to images to only certain people.

Then I found the hotlink protection service in my cpanel. They’d told me it was not enabled, but it was.

I disabled it. My images work perfectly now. Feel free to test it for yourself.

Thank god.

It looks great now! +1 for cPanel investigation, -1 for Hostgator Live Chat. ??

Thank you so much for helping me figure it out!

You’re welcome!