Title: Precondition Failed error
Last modified: August 18, 2016

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# Precondition Failed error

 *  [Chad McCullough](https://wordpress.org/support/users/onegear/)
 * (@onegear)
 * [19 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/precondition-failed-error/)
 * i’ve been having problems making changes to the sidebar of the WordPress Default
   theme. when i make a change and try to save it, i receive the following error:
 * Precondition Failed
 * The precondition on the request for the URL /blog/wp-admin/theme-editor.php evaluated
   to false.
 * this has happened on other themes, as well. i’m running the latest release of
   wordpress, if that information is needed.
 * thanks for your help.

Viewing 7 replies - 1 through 7 (of 7 total)

 *  Thread Starter [Chad McCullough](https://wordpress.org/support/users/onegear/)
 * (@onegear)
 * [19 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/precondition-failed-error/#post-476308)
 * does WP ship with some sort of spam control? i’m reading online that this may
   be causing the problem.
 * thanks
 *  Thread Starter [Chad McCullough](https://wordpress.org/support/users/onegear/)
 * (@onegear)
 * [19 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/precondition-failed-error/#post-476693)
 * where would i “shutoff” the spam control that could possibly be causing this 
   issue? i’ve searched for this but can’t figure it out.
 * thanks.
 *  Thread Starter [Chad McCullough](https://wordpress.org/support/users/onegear/)
 * (@onegear)
 * [19 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/precondition-failed-error/#post-476743)
 * is there a way to shutoff spam control in wordpress? each time i attempt to edit
   anything other than the stylesheet, i receive the above error. it’s become very
   frustrating because i’m unable to make any changes to my blog’s appearance.
 *  [whooami](https://wordpress.org/support/users/whooami/)
 * (@whooami)
 * [19 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/precondition-failed-error/#post-476744)
 * thats not wordpress.
 * thats mod_security.
 * add
 * `SecFilterEngine Off`
 * to your .htaccess and see if it goes away.
 * that will disable it for your entire domain, so if you would rather just disable
   it for stuff you do in the admin area, create an .htaccess (use notepad), put**
   that code above** in it .. and upload it to wp-admin/
 * Or ..
 * if you just want to have certain files do this:
 * `SecFilterEngine On`
    `SecFilterSelective "REQUEST_URI" "/wp-admin/edit.php" "
   allow,nolog"`
 * the above would go in the root .htaccess NOT in a /wp-admin one.
 * Or, lets say you want to post a word that might be typically blocked, like ‘curl’:
 * `SecFilterEngine On`
    `SecFilterSelective "POST_PAYLOAD" "curl" "allow,nolog"`
 * Like before, that example would go in your main .htaccess
 * You can see the choices are many.
 * [http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.0/howto/htaccess.html](http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.0/howto/htaccess.html)
   
   [http://www.modsecurity.org/documentation/modsecurity-apache/1.9.3/html-multipage/](http://www.modsecurity.org/documentation/modsecurity-apache/1.9.3/html-multipage/)
 *  Thread Starter [Chad McCullough](https://wordpress.org/support/users/onegear/)
 * (@onegear)
 * [19 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/precondition-failed-error/#post-476745)
 * thanks for your help. that resolved the issue! i tried googling it prior to submitting
   this request for help but wasn’t really sure what to look for.
 * i don’t run windows so i had to use my editor of choice, vi, on my linux box.
   🙂
 * thanks, again, for your help! that was very easy to fix.
 *  [whooami](https://wordpress.org/support/users/whooami/)
 * (@whooami)
 * [19 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/precondition-failed-error/#post-476746)
 * bleh vi, pico.
 * youre welcome 🙂
 *  Thread Starter [Chad McCullough](https://wordpress.org/support/users/onegear/)
 * (@onegear)
 * [19 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/precondition-failed-error/#post-476747)
 * haha!! 🙂

Viewing 7 replies - 1 through 7 (of 7 total)

The topic ‘Precondition Failed error’ is closed to new replies.

## Tags

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

 * In: [Fixing WordPress](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/how-to-and-troubleshooting/)
 * 7 replies
 * 2 participants
 * Last reply from: [Chad McCullough](https://wordpress.org/support/users/onegear/)
 * Last activity: [19 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/precondition-failed-error/#post-476747)
 * Status: not resolved

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