by WP Folio Team
4.7 (293 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.
Tested up to WP 6.9 (Current: 7.0.2)
v2.8.8.8
Current Version v2.8.8.8
Updated 2 months ago
Last Update on 06 May, 2026
Refreshed 8 hours ago
Last Refreshed on
Rank
#1,869
—
No change
Active Installs
10K+
—
No change
KW Avg Position
22.8
+0.2 better
Downloads
263K
+48 today
Support Resolved
50%
—
No change
Rating
94%
Review 4.7 out of 5
4.7
(293 reviews)
Next Milestone 20K
10K+
20K+
427
Ranks to Climb
-
Growth Needed
8,000,000
Active Installs
Pro
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Need 5,475 more installs to reach 20K+
Rank Changes
Current
#1,869
Change
Best
#
Downloads Growth
Downloads
Growth
Peak
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Upgrade NowReviews & Ratings
4.7
293 reviews
Overall
94%
5
263
(90%)
4
3
(1%)
3
3
(1%)
2
4
(1%)
1
20
(7%)
Tracked Keywords
Showing 5 of 5| Keyword | Position | Change | Type | Updated |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| copy protection | 4 | — | Tag | 22 hours ago |
| folder protection | 4 | — | Tag | 22 hours ago |
| uploads | 25 | — | Tag | 22 hours ago |
| protection | 40 | — | Tag | 22 hours ago |
| downloads | 41 | — | Tag | 22 hours ago |
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- Historical ranking data
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Support Threads Overview
Resolved
Unresolved
2
Total Threads
1
Resolved
1
Unresolved
50%
Resolution Rate
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Start Tracking FreePlugin Details
- Version
- 2.8.8.8
- Last Updated
- May 06, 2026
- Requires WP
- 4.7+
- Tested Up To
- 6.9
- PHP Version
- 5.6.1 or higher
- Author
- WP Folio Team
Support & Rating
- Rating
- ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ 4.7
- Reviews
- 293
- Support Threads
- 2
- Resolved
- 50%
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It's likely that you're using an outdated version of PHP.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.