Title: .htaccess blocks WordPress Export feature
Last modified: May 30, 2020

---

# .htaccess blocks WordPress Export feature

 *  [itmonitor](https://wordpress.org/support/users/itmonitor/)
 * (@itmonitor)
 * [6 years ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/htaccess-blocks-wordpress-export-feature/)
 * Hello,
 * When trying to export WordPress into a .xml file, using the WordPress dashboard
   tools for this, the .htaccess file will block it and throw a “Forbidden, You 
   don’t have permission to access /wp-admin/export.php on this server.”
 * On checking every code in the .htaccess, I found out the issue is caused by
 *     ```
       # BEGIN block author scans
       RewriteEngine On
       RewriteBase /
       RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} (author=\d+) [NC]
       RewriteRule .* - [F]
       # END block author scans
       ```
   
 * This code is necessary to block bots from running author scans on WordPress websites.
 * Is this some security issue with WordPress code? Why “block author scans” is 
   blocking WordPress from exporting the .xml file?
 * Any advice is welcome.
 * IM
    -  This topic was modified 6 years ago by [Jan Dembowski](https://wordpress.org/support/users/jdembowski/).
      Reason: Moved to Fixing WordPress, this is not an Everything else WordPress
      topic

Viewing 1 replies (of 1 total)

 *  [corrinarusso](https://wordpress.org/support/users/corrinarusso/)
 * (@corrinarusso)
 * [6 years ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/htaccess-blocks-wordpress-export-feature/#post-12914892)
 * Just remove it from htaccess, run your export, then put it back.
 * Remember, any time you export files, copy files, move files, etc the disk needs
   a place to replicate the data into the /tmp directory on your server before it
   finalizes the process. I don’t know what the process in the export that is accessing
   your authors information but clearly there must be something in the export that
   validates the author first.

Viewing 1 replies (of 1 total)

The topic ‘.htaccess blocks WordPress Export feature’ is closed to new replies.

 * In: [Fixing WordPress](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/how-to-and-troubleshooting/)
 * 1 reply
 * 2 participants
 * Last reply from: [corrinarusso](https://wordpress.org/support/users/corrinarusso/)
 * Last activity: [6 years ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/htaccess-blocks-wordpress-export-feature/#post-12914892)
 * Status: not resolved

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