Title: error retrieving 401.php
Last modified: August 19, 2016

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# error retrieving 401.php

 *  [Woolyowl](https://wordpress.org/support/users/woolyowl/)
 * (@woolyowl)
 * [15 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/error-retrieving-401php/)
 * Hi,
    I am taking over a WordPress site that someone else built. I’ve moved it
   to a new server and pretty much everything seems OK except for this ONE thing:
 * in footer.php, there’s a line of code:
    `<?require_once($_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'].'/
   admin/wp-content/themes/default/images/401.php');?>`
 * It results in this error appearing in the bottom of the footer:
 * Warning: require_once(/home/secure22/public_html/htdocs/admin/wp-content/themes/
   default/images/401.php) [function.require-once]: failed to open stream: No such
   file or directory in /home/daniel71/public_html/admin/wp-content/themes/mytheme/
   footer.php on line 21
 * I have never seen this before and am wondering if I can safely remove the code
   from footer.php. I don’t see it in the footers of other themes. I’m guessing 
   it was an attempt to create a custom 401 error page or something, but why is 
   it looking in the images folder of a theme (default) the site isn’t even using?
 * It does NOT result in an error in the version of the site that’s still live on
   the old server…presumably b/c the file path there is correct, and I don’t know
   how to correct the code for the new server.
 * Any ideas appreciated!

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)

 *  [esmi](https://wordpress.org/support/users/esmi/)
 * (@esmi)
 * [15 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/error-retrieving-401php/#post-1667321)
 * Why not just try removing it?
 *  Thread Starter [Woolyowl](https://wordpress.org/support/users/woolyowl/)
 * (@woolyowl)
 * [15 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/error-retrieving-401php/#post-1667450)
 * Well, when I remove it everything seems fine. I was just thinking that someone
   who knows about it might say, like, “Oh, that’s important for such and such a
   reason, fix it like this…” or something.
 * But for now I’ll just take it out, until it seems like it needs to be put back(
   in a way that works).
 * thanks.
 *  [esmi](https://wordpress.org/support/users/esmi/)
 * (@esmi)
 * [15 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/error-retrieving-401php/#post-1667466)
 * It definitely **not** any form of standard WP markup/code. You don’t have to 
   specifically call the 404 template file in a theme. If a link is 404, WP will
   look for a 404.php template file in your theme first. If it can’t find one, it
   will try to display a default message.

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)

The topic ‘error retrieving 401.php’ is closed to new replies.

## Tags

 * [footer error](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/footer-error/)

 * In: [Fixing WordPress](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/how-to-and-troubleshooting/)
 * 3 replies
 * 2 participants
 * Last reply from: [esmi](https://wordpress.org/support/users/esmi/)
 * Last activity: [15 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/error-retrieving-401php/#post-1667466)
 * Status: not resolved

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