Title: .htaccess issues again causing 403 Forbidden Error
Last modified: March 22, 2020

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# .htaccess issues again causing 403 Forbidden Error

 *  [rich95](https://wordpress.org/support/users/rich95/)
 * (@rich95)
 * [6 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/htaccess-issues-again/)
 * Hello;
 * I have updated WooCommerce to v3.8.1. I had it working fine with my previous 
   version for years.
 * As we all know, there is an .htaccess file located in the woocommerce_uploads
   folder that is set to ‘deny from all’ which protects direct URL downloads.
 * My file download method in WooCommerce is set to ‘Force Downloads’.
 * My users cannot download their purchased products as they are receiving the standard‘
   403 forbidden’ white page.
 * If I set my file download method in WooCommerce to ‘Redirect’, the products can
   be downloaded fine but they also become unprotected and can be downloaded from
   a direct URL link.
 * The woocommerce_uploads folder permissions is set to 755 and the .htaccess permissions
   is set to 644. All products in that folder are set to 644.
 * I cannot remove the .htaccess as I do not want people to download from the direct
   URL link.
 * WooCommerce should be working properly the way I have it set up, no?
 * I would really, really appreciate any help to figure out what I am doing wrong
   so that I can get this working as it should be.
 * Thanks,
    -Richard
    -  This topic was modified 6 years, 2 months ago by [rich95](https://wordpress.org/support/users/rich95/).

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

 *  [ASR Martins](https://wordpress.org/support/users/basiemartins/)
 * (@basiemartins)
 * [5 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/htaccess-issues-again/#post-13037704)
 * Hi Richard, could you solve this problem? I have the same problem and I am struggling
   to find a fix for it.
    Martins
    -  This reply was modified 5 years, 11 months ago by [ASR Martins](https://wordpress.org/support/users/basiemartins/).
 *  Thread Starter [rich95](https://wordpress.org/support/users/rich95/)
 * (@rich95)
 * [5 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/htaccess-issues-again/#post-13039069)
 * Unfortunately, I didn’t know how to solve it and I had to get my developer to
   fix it, which they did. But I’d be at a loss to l ow what they did.
 * Richard
 *  [ASR Martins](https://wordpress.org/support/users/basiemartins/)
 * (@basiemartins)
 * [5 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/htaccess-issues-again/#post-13039305)
 * Thanks, Richard,
    I had the same problem quite a while ago and this time it was
   the last straw. I have decided to send the download links to people manually 
   with “We Transfer”. There is a lot of control with this method (A lot you can
   do to secure the download links) I use woocommerce as always but I unticked the
   downloadable section within the product pages (everything is still there in case
   I want to go back to it one day), and I added a little message notifying them
   that I will send the download links as soon as the transaction is processed and
   completed. That way I do not have to worry about people stealing my books Thanks
   for your reply, Martins (It is a pity that Automattic did not solve this problem
   for us because many people have been struggling with this for a long time)
    -  This reply was modified 5 years, 11 months ago by [ASR Martins](https://wordpress.org/support/users/basiemartins/).

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

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## Tags

 * [htaccess](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/htaccess/)
 * [permissions](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/permissions/)

 * 3 replies
 * 2 participants
 * Last reply from: [ASR Martins](https://wordpress.org/support/users/basiemartins/)
 * Last activity: [5 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/htaccess-issues-again/#post-13039305)
 * Status: not resolved