[Plugin: W3 Total Cache] No matter what, can't get past .htaccess not writeable

I have a similar problem: in my case the plugin can’t write to the .htaccess file either
The .htaccess file is in a cgi-bin folder, which is in the same directory as all my wordpress files.
Could this be the problem?
I’ve tried creating another .htacces file within the wordpress directory, but that doesn’t work (results in an internal server error).

Help?

Hello,

I had a similar problem, I believe it is related to ordering on how document_root is detected. If I switch to this within w3_get_document_root it now gives proper paths

if (!empty($_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'])) {
            $document_root = w3_path($_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT']);
        } elseif (!empty($_SERVER['SCRIPT_FILENAME'])) {
            $document_root = substr(w3_path($_SERVER['SCRIPT_FILENAME']), 0, -strlen(w3_path($_SERVER['PHP_SELF'])));

I found that the SCRIPT_FILENAME method was producing /full/path/word instead of /full/path/wordpress while $_SERVER[‘DOCUMENT_ROOT’] always had the correct variable.

— Edward

I am having a similar problem with my WP Total Cache not being able to access my .htaccess even though the permissions are set to 777. My wordpress is installed in the root of the public_html folder. I would like to try the solution above, but I don’t know where I change the code? What file do I make the the change in?

Thanks,
Sam

OK. I think I found which file and line the code is in. Please let me know if I have it right. I am still having the htaccess issue.
The file is define.php found in wp-content/plugins/w3-total-cache/inc
The code I changed started line 582. It now looks like this:

function w3_get_document_root() {
    static $document_root = null;
if ($document_root === null) {
        if (!empty($_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'])) {
            $document_root = w3_path($_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT']);
        } elseif (!empty($_SERVER['SCRIPT_FILENAME'])) {
            $document_root = substr(w3_path($_SERVER['SCRIPT_FILENAME']), 0, -strlen(w3_path($_SERVER['PHP_SELF'])));
        } elseif (!empty($_SERVER['PATH_TRANSLATED'])) {
            $document_root = substr(w3_path($_SERVER['PATH_TRANSLATED']), 0, -strlen(w3_path($_SERVER['PHP_SELF'])));
        } elseif (!empty($_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'])) {
            $document_root = w3_path($_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT']);
        } else {
            $document_root = w3_get_site_root();
        }

        $document_root = realpath($document_root);
        $document_root = w3_path($document_root);
    }

    return $document_root;
}

I should add that I also get the error “Unable to make CloudFlare API request.” when I try to change the Cloud Flare settings in WP Total Cache. I double checked the email, domain and API key–all are correct.

I manually changed the htaccess file in the root of my site folder, but still having both Cloud Flare and caching issues. The htaccess file is not recognized? (I am using WordPress 3.3 with a Bluehost shared hosting account)

The following is my htaccess file:

# BEGIN W3TC Page Cache core
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
    RewriteEngine On
    RewriteBase /category/blog/
    RewriteRule ^(.*\/)?w3tc_rewrite_test$ $1?w3tc_rewrite_test=1 [L]
    RewriteCond %{HTTP:Accept-Encoding} gzip
    RewriteRule .* - [E=W3TC_ENC:_gzip]
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_METHOD} !=POST
    RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} =""
    RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} =www.acupunctureclinicvictoriabc.ca
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} \/$ [OR]
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} (sitemap(_index)?\.xml(\.gz)?|[a-z0-9_\-]+-sitemap([0-9]+)?\.xml(\.gz)?) [NC]
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !(\/wp-admin\/|\/xmlrpc.php|\/wp-(app|cron|login|register|mail)\.php|\/feed\/|wp-.*\.php|index\.php) [NC,OR]
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} (wp-comments-popup\.php|wp-links-opml\.php|wp-locations\.php) [NC]
    RewriteCond %{HTTP_COOKIE} !(comment_author|wp-postpass|wordpress_\[a-f0-9\]\+|wordpress_logged_in) [NC]
    RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} !(W3\ Total\ Cache/0\.9\.2\.4) [NC]
    RewriteCond "%{DOCUMENT_ROOT}/wp-content/w3tc/pgcache/%{REQUEST_URI}/_index%{ENV:W3TC_UA}%{ENV:W3TC_REF}%{ENV:W3TC_SSL}.html%{ENV:W3TC_ENC}" -f
    RewriteRule .* "/wp-content/w3tc/pgcache/%{REQUEST_URI}/_index%{ENV:W3TC_UA}%{ENV:W3TC_REF}%{ENV:W3TC_SSL}.html%{ENV:W3TC_ENC}" [L]
</IfModule>
# END W3TC Page Cache core
# BEGIN W3TC Browser Cache
<IfModule mod_deflate.c>
    <IfModule mod_setenvif.c>
        BrowserMatch ^Mozilla/4 gzip-only-text/html
        BrowserMatch ^Mozilla/4\.0[678] no-gzip
        BrowserMatch \bMSIE !no-gzip !gzip-only-text/html
        BrowserMatch \bMSI[E] !no-gzip !gzip-only-text/html
    </IfModule>
    <IfModule mod_headers.c>
        Header append Vary User-Agent env=!dont-vary
    </IfModule>
    <IfModule mod_filter.c>
        AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/css application/x-javascript text/x-component text/html text/richtext image/svg+xml text/plain text/xsd text/xsl text/xml image/x-icon
    </IfModule>
</IfModule>
<FilesMatch "\.(css|js|htc|CSS|JS|HTC)$">
    FileETag None
    <IfModule mod_headers.c>
         Header set X-Powered-By "W3 Total Cache/0.9.2.4"
    </IfModule>
</FilesMatch>
<FilesMatch "\.(html|htm|rtf|rtx|svg|svgz|txt|xsd|xsl|xml|HTML|HTM|RTF|RTX|SVG|SVGZ|TXT|XSD|XSL|XML)$">
    FileETag None
    <IfModule mod_headers.c>
         Header set X-Powered-By "W3 Total Cache/0.9.2.4"
    </IfModule>
</FilesMatch>
<FilesMatch "\.(asf|asx|wax|wmv|wmx|avi|bmp|class|divx|doc|docx|eot|exe|gif|gz|gzip|ico|jpg|jpeg|jpe|mdb|mid|midi|mov|qt|mp3|m4a|mp4|m4v|mpeg|mpg|mpe|mpp|otf|odb|odc|odf|odg|odp|ods|odt|ogg|pdf|png|pot|pps|ppt|pptx|ra|ram|svg|svgz|swf|tar|tif|tiff|ttf|ttc|wav|wma|wri|xla|xls|xlsx|xlt|xlw|zip|ASF|ASX|WAX|WMV|WMX|AVI|BMP|CLASS|DIVX|DOC|DOCX|EOT|EXE|GIF|GZ|GZIP|ICO|JPG|JPEG|JPE|MDB|MID|MIDI|MOV|QT|MP3|M4A|MP4|M4V|MPEG|MPG|MPE|MPP|OTF|ODB|ODC|ODF|ODG|ODP|ODS|ODT|OGG|PDF|PNG|POT|PPS|PPT|PPTX|RA|RAM|SVG|SVGZ|SWF|TAR|TIF|TIFF|TTF|TTC|WAV|WMA|WRI|XLA|XLS|XLSX|XLT|XLW|ZIP)$">
    FileETag None
    <IfModule mod_headers.c>
         Header set X-Powered-By "W3 Total Cache/0.9.2.4"
    </IfModule>
</FilesMatch>
# END W3TC Browser Cache

# BEGIN WordPress
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^index\.php$ - [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]
</IfModule>

You can try and edit the .htaccess files manually by following the instructions on the Install page on the plugin pages.

If you still have problems you can file a bug submission form on the Support page in the plugin.