How to Fix 403 Forbidden Error in WordPress

How to Fix 403 Forbidden Error in WordPress

If you are one of those website owners who receive a 403 Forbidden Error on his WordPress site, this error is one of the most dreadful ones which a WordPress beginner can come across. Everyone who spent some time online has seen an HTTP error at least once, A couple of them are quite annoying, like getting back a 403 Forbidden error on your own WordPress website. This error code usually shows if your server’s permissions are not allowing access to a particular page.
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Below you will see three of the most common reasons that could cause your WordPress site to display the 403 Forbidden Error and the fixes.

403 Forbidden Error Caused by a WordPress Plugin

We will want to start by deactivating every WordPress plugin temporarily including security plugins which were installed on your site. In case the error stops showing up after you have deactivated the plugins, this means one of the plugins is causing for this error to happen. To figure out which plugin is causing the issue, simply deactivate a plugin one by one until you get the 403 error again.
Our suggestion is to use a little number of plugins as possible, You will have fewer incompatibilities when using several plugins and you will have a bigger chance of a security breach once you have more plugins active.

403 Forbidden Error That is Caused by File Permissions

If you have incorrect file pemrissions it could cause for a 403 forbidden error to occur on your WordPress site. It will also cause for the web server to think that you don’t actually have the permission to access these files which you are trying to reach. If the solution above does not fix the 403 forbidden error on your WordPress website then incorrect file permissions are the next thing you need to check.
If you are interested in resolving this issue, connect to your WordPress site with an FTP client. Go to the root folder where every WordPress file is located, ensure that the folders on your WordPress have a permission of 744 or 755 and every file needs to have a permission of 644 or 640. Once you implement this solution, the 403 forbidden error will be gone if it was the issue in the first place.

403 Forbidden Error Caused by Corrupt .htaccess File

Usually, the 403 error is caused by a corrupt .htaccess file on your WordPress server. Repairing this file is pretty simple to do.
Begin by connecting to your website with an FTP client or use the file manager in your control panel (in case you have one).

Locate the .htaccess file

Now we need to locate the .htaccess file which is within the root folder of your WordPress site. Remember that the .htaccess file is one of the system files so in case you are accessing through a control panel, please enable the ‘show hidden files’ option.

FTP software

If you are accessing from some FTP software you will have to download the .htaccess file on your computer so that you have a fresh backup of it and modify it there. Once you’ve done that, you need to remove the file from your server.

Try reaching your website after you are finished with the editing. In case the 403 forbidden error shows up again and is not showing up on your site, this means your .htaccess file was corrupt and responsible for the problem you had.

Generate Fresh .htaccess file

You may generate a fresh .htaccess file from your WordPress admin area, simply go to Settings > Permalinks Page and click on the save changes button which is at the bottom of the page and WordPress will create a new and fresh .htaccess file.

Conclusion

The 403 forbidden error is not a big thing to worry about.  But it could cause pain, sometimes.
If you ever run across this issue you could fix it as simple as this and also with the help of the guide here.
In a case that you face WordPress site with the 403 Forbidden Error then this is what you have to do:

• your plugins Checking
• Check your user privileges.
•  .htaccess file checking 

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