
The 403 forbidden messages are quite common these days, but many of us still don’t know much about them. One can lose many potential customers if this error is not fixed at the earliest. So, do you know what it is an HTTP Error 403 Forbidden Message? How you can fix them? It is nothing but an HTTP status code that pops up when we try to access a page and forbid us to view that source.
Have you seen the following message when you tried to view any page?
“403 Forbidden- You don’t have permission to access ‘/’ on this server”
Yes! Well, this is a common scenario for many webmasters.
This blog post takes into account all the essentials about “HTTP Error 403 Forbidden Messages” error.
Introduction:
While creating a new website to host your content and put it into live, you get a mail saying “Hey, is there a reason I see this when I click on your website?”
It tends to be a disturbing error since you are doing much to attract the audience. Also, you are losing a number of potential customers who are clicking your website but getting this message in return. This error looks something like this:
The 403 Forbidden error relates to an HTTP status code which generally happens when the web page (or other resources) that you’re trying to open in your web browser is a resource that you’re not allowed to access.
It means that the server is refusing to take any action even after understanding your request.
Website designers can customize how a 403 error looks just like 404 errors and 502 errors!
403 errors look different in different web servers. Websites even use slightly different names for this error. The most common incarnations of 403 Forbidden errors are as follow:
403 errors are caused by issues where you’re trying to access something that you don’t have access to. Before digging the “how to resolve” part of the article, it’s important to know what exactly causes it.
There are basically two reasons behind this Error. These are:
Below errors are also client-side errors and are related to the 403 Forbidden errors such as:
Now, it’s time to look down at the solutions to get rid of this error message. We will take you through the working steps that you can execute to resolve this error without any hesitation.
Method 1 – Checking .htaccess File
Most of the people are not familiar with the .htaccess file. It’s because the file remains in the “hidden in the project directory”.
.htaccess is basically a server configuration file and mainly works by altering the configuration on the Apache Web Server settings.
However, you can access them easily if you are using the Hostinger File Manager.
In case you are not using Hostinger File Manager, or let’s say if you’re using C Panel in place, you can access the .htaccess file hosting Control Panel with the help of File Manager. Below are the steps involved:
In case, if your website lacks the file and you don’t have a .htaccess file detected, you can create it through the manual approach. As discussed, as soon as you found the .htaccess file, you need to follow the following steps:
In case, this doesn’t work out, move onto the next discussed steps:
Method 2 – Resetting File and Directory Permissions
Remember when files are created, they always come up with some default permissions. This bad permission is what led to a Http Error 403 forbidden message. They control all the files and folder activities such as how you can read, write and execute the files for your use.
If you are using Hostinger, download Fix File Ownership to take care of all your permission problems in just a single click.
Not only it will save your time but also will restore all file and directory permissions to default values.
However, you can use FileZilla FTP to edit file and folder permissions. To get started, you should follow the following steps:
If the error is not resolved/ looks down similar as before, move to the next section of the article:
Method 3 – Disabling WordPress plugins
If the errors are still not resolved using the above two methods, it’s high time to understand that the error is popping up over and again due to an incompatible or faulty plug-in. In this section, we will try the disabling plug-in and would check if it fixes the 403 forbidden errors or not.
Instead of going to each and every plug-in and then disabling it, it would be better to disable all the plug- INS at once. Through this step, you would not only take less time but also will be able to detect the problem easily. Below are the following steps you need to take:
Try to access your website again after disabling all the plugin. Did it take away the problem? If yes, then the actual source of the error was the plugin only. Now, next, you need to deactivate the plugin one by one and thus have to check if your website is coming back to action or not. Thus, using this method, you would be able to detect the faulty plugin that is the root cause of the problem.
If installing a new one seems mandatory, you can choose to update the plug-in though.
If sadly, none of the methods explained above works out for you, (It’s really rare), you may need to get in touch with your hosting provider.
Below are some of the methods often overlooked which can help you to resolve the error:
Time to sum up:
Detecting 403 errors needs patience. We understand that this error prohibits you from accessing your website and thus becomes quite irritating sometimes. Nevertheless, follow the above-explained methods steps one by one to bring your website back into action.
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