by WP Folio Team
4.7 (292 reviews)
Prevent Direct Access – Protect WordPress Files
A simple way to prevent search engines and the public from indexing and accessing your files without complex user authentication.
Compatible with WP 6.9.4
v2.8.8.6
Current Version v2.8.8.6
Updated 1 week ago
Last Update on 23 Mar, 2026
Refreshed 6 hours ago
Last Refreshed on
Rank
#1,939
—
No change
Active Installs
10K+
-30.7%
KW Avg Position
114
-0.5 better
Downloads
264.9K
+67 today
Support Resolved
0%
—
No change
Rating
94%
Review 4.7 out of 5
4.7
(292 reviews)
Next Milestone 20K
10K+
20K+
451
Ranks to Climb
-
Growth Needed
8,000,000
Active Installs
Pro
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Rank Changes
Current
#1,939
Change
Best
#
Downloads Growth
Downloads
Growth
Peak
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4.7
292 reviews
Overall
94%
5
262
(90%)
4
3
(1%)
3
3
(1%)
2
4
(1%)
1
20
(7%)
Tracked Keywords
Showing 2 of 2| Keyword | Position | Change | Type | Updated |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| folder protection | 113 | — | Tag | 1 day ago |
| copy protection | 115 | — | Tag | 1 day ago |
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Support Threads Overview
Resolved
Unresolved
3
Total Threads
0
Resolved
3
Unresolved
0%
Resolution Rate
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Start Tracking FreePlugin Details
- Version
- 2.8.8.6
- Last Updated
- Mar 23, 2026
- Requires WP
- 4.7+
- Tested Up To
- 6.9.4
- PHP Version
- 5.6.1 or higher
- Author
- WP Folio Team
Support & Rating
- Rating
- ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ 4.7
- Reviews
- 292
- Support Threads
- 3
- Resolved
- 0%
Keywords
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Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions about Prevent Direct Access – Protect WordPress Files
It's likely that you're using an outdated version of PHP. Please check and upgrade the PHP version on your server to 5.6 or greater. In fact, WordPress itself even recommends your host supports PHP version 7.2 or greater for security purposes.
Prevent Direct Access supports websites hosted on Apache servers out of the box. In case you're using WP Engine or other NGINX servers, please check out this instruction on how to update the server configuration for our plugin (Both Lite and Gold version) to work as expected. In case you’re using Internet Information Services (IIS) web server, please check out this instruction on how to update the server configuration for our plugin (Both Lite and Gold version) to work as expected.
The plugin needs to add some mod_rewrite rules to your website .htaccess file (located on your website root folder) to prevent direct access to your files on the server. So it's likely that your .htaccess is not writable (with at least 644 permissions; whose owner must be also accessible by your apache server such as www-data). If that's the case, you must either make it writable or manually update your .htaccess with the mod_rewrite rules found under Settings > Permalinks.
Since PDA Lite version 2.7.7, you can protect unlimited files under your Media Library.
The Lite version of this plugin only supports Apache, Nginx, and IIS single sites. Multisite mode is supported in our Gold version with the PDA Multisite extension installed.