WordPress Preventing Password Protecting a Directory

Password protecting a subdirectory using the cPanel icon (or a .htpasswd file) will be unsuccessful if WordPress is installed in the public_html directory with permalinks enabled.

Edit .htaccess File

1. Edit the .htaccess file in your WordPress home folder (public_html) and remove the line  of code shown in bold below:
   
   
   # BEGIN WordPress
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]
</IfModule>
# END WordPress
2. Replace that line with this new line:
   
   
   RewriteRule ./ /index.php [L]
   
   The final code snippet will look like this:
   
   
   # BEGIN WordPress
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ./ /index.php [L]
</IfModule>
# END WordPress
3. Save your changes.

Reset Permalinks

1. From the left-hand navigation menu in WordPress, click Settings > Permalinks. Note the current setting. If you are using a custom structure, copy or save the custom structure somewhere.
2. Select Default.
3. Click Save Settings.
4. Change the settings back to the previous configuration (before you selected Default). Put the custom structure back if you had one.
5. Click > Save Settings.

This should reset the permalinks and prevent any posts or pages from returning a 404 Page Not Found error. You should now be able to password protect a subdirectory.