.htaccess and robots.txt not writable

I had a problem with the Rank Math robots and htaccess showing that the files are not writable even though my permissions on the server were set correctly. I noticed in this forum that a few other users of Rank Math had this problem, with no apparent resolution. I wanted to post here with the solution that worked for me.

The Really Simple SSL plugin, under Settings > Hardening > Disable the built-in file editors can be set to on, which I had done. Once I set it to off and went to Rank Math > General Setting > htaccess and robots.text, I noticed these files were writable.

If disabling of file editors is set to on in Really Simple SSL, it appears to prevent writing to htaccess and robots.txt, for instance by other plugins that need to edit the htaccess file.

In my case, I wanted to add WordPress security headers with the Headers Security Advanced & HSTS WP plugin. However, upon activation of this plugin, the dashboard showed a fatal error and I was unable to proceed.

The solution for me was to disable the option mentioned above in Really Simple SSL. This enabled me to successfuly add the security headers with the other plugin. I then set the Disable the built-in file editors option back to on in Really Simple SSL.

This troubleshooting took a lot of time but I think if other users have this problem, it is worth checking to see if another plugin is disabling editing of the htaccess file.