Written by Admin on 2025-05-06

How to Allow Download of Files in WordPress Root Directory through htaccess

In WordPress, htaccess or the Hypertext Access file is used to configure web server settings for a specific directory and its contents. One of the most common use cases of htaccess is to grant access to certain files, folders, or content types. This article will guide you on how to allow the downloading of files from your WordPress root directory using htaccess.

Step-by-Step Guide

Step 1: Locate .htaccess file

The first thing you need to do is locate the .htaccess file in your WordPress root directory. This can be done by connecting to your website via FTP client or by using the file manager in your hosting control panel. Once you have located the .htaccess file, make sure to back it up first before editing it.

Step 2: Access .htaccess with Editor

Once backup is done, open your .htaccess file with a text editor and add the following code at the bottom of the file:

<FilesMatch "\.(pdf|doc|docx|xls|xlsx|ppt|pptx|zip|rar|gz)$"> Header set Content-Disposition "attachment" </FilesMatch>

This code will tell the server to treat all files with extensions matching to the specified formats as downloadable files.

Step 3: Save and test

After adding the code, save the changes made so far and upload the updated .htaccess file back to the WordPress root directory. Finally, test your website by clicking on any of the file types in the root directory, and you should see them either being downloaded automatically or prompt a download dialog.

Conclusion

By following the above-given steps you should be able to enable file downloads from the WordPress root directory, using the htaccess file. Be careful while editing the .htaccess file as it is a powerful tool that controls many aspects of your website, which when not executed correctly can cause unexpected issues. In addition, ensure regular website backups as a best practice.