Password Protecting your WordPress website on WordPress hosting (cPanel)

This article applies to customers on the WordPress Hosting plan.
For more information about this plan, please go to: https://www.blacknight.com/wordpress/

If you are password protecting your WordPress site, you must make one change to the .htaccess file in order for it to work correctly.

• Go into File Manager and double-click on the public_html folder.
• Right-click the .htaccess file and click on Edit.
  • If you do not see the .htaccess file, then click on Settings on the top right and check the box for "Show Hidden Files (dotfiles)"
• You will receive a warning. Ensure you copy the file or download the file before you edit it. Click Edit again.
• Add the following to its own line at the top of the file.
  • ErrorDocument 401 default
• It should look like this:

If you are wondering how to password protect your website and/or folder, please see our other guide here:

• Create a Password-Protected Folder on WordPress hosting (cPanel)

Further Queries

If you have any queries on this, please contact our Support team - see the following for our contact details:

• https://www.blacknight.com/contact-us.html