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Why You Can’t Find .htaccess File on Your WordPress Site

By Editorial Staff | | Reader Disclosure

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Trying to find your .htaccess file can be one of the most common frustrations when you start working on your WordPress site. You’re likely looking for it to fix a common error, but it seems to have vanished.

If this sounds familiar, then you’re in the right place.

The two most common reasons you can’t find your .htaccess file are that 1) it’s a hidden file and your file manager isn’t set to show hidden files, or 2) it hasn’t been generated by WordPress yet.

We’ve helped thousands of users solve this exact problem. And in this guide, we’ll show you exactly how to find your .htaccess file by making it visible, and how to create a new one if it’s missing.

Finding the .htaccess file for your WordPress site

What Is the .htaccess File?

The .htaccess file is a server configuration file used by websites running on the Apache web server. It tells your server how to handle certain things on your website.

Its tasks include managing your site’s permalink structure, redirecting users, password-protecting the admin area, and more.

The file is found in the root folder of your WordPress installation, alongside folders like /wp-content/ and /wp-admin/.

How to Find or Create Your .htaccess File

Here’s a quick overview of all the topics we’ll cover in this post.

You can use the quick links below to jump to different sections:

Method 1: Making Hidden Files Visible

The dot at the beginning of the .htaccess file name tells the server that it is a hidden file. By default, most FTP clients and web-based file managers do not show hidden files. This means that you need to change a setting to make them visible.

Here at WPBeginner, our developers often use FTP clients like FileZilla for server access. This is a reliable tool that gives you direct control over your website’s files.

How to Show Hidden Files in FileZilla
  1. Connect to your WordPress hosting server with FileZilla.
  2. Click on ‘Server’ in the top menu bar.
  3. Select ‘Force showing hidden files’ from the dropdown menu.
Show hidden files in FileZilla

Once you enable this option, you will be able to see the .htaccess file in the root directory of your WordPress website.

How to Show Hidden Files in cPanel / Bluehost

If you’re using the File Manager app in cPanel, you can find a similar setting.

First, log in to your hosting account. If you use a host like Bluehost, navigate to the ‘Websites’ tab, and click ‘Settings’ for your site.

Bluehost site settings

Next, you need to find and click on the ‘File Manager’ icon.

File Manager is a cPanel app that allows you to browse files stored on your hosting server without using an FTP client.

Accessing a website's file manager in Bluehost

Once the File Manager opens, click the ‘Settings’ button in the top-right corner.

A popup will appear. You need to check the box next to ‘Show Hidden Files (dotfiles)’.

Show hidden files in cPanel

Click on the ‘Save’ button to store your changes.

You should now be able to view and edit the .htaccess file in the File Manager app.

Method 2: Generating a New .htaccess File

The second reason for a missing .htaccess file is that your site hasn’t generated one yet. WordPress creates this file automatically to handle your permalinks, but sometimes it needs a little push.

First, log in to your WordPress dashboard and navigate to Settings » Permalinks.

Permalinks settings page

Don’t make any changes. Simply scroll to the bottom and click the ‘Save Changes’ button.

WordPress will now try to generate the .htaccess file for you. If it fails due to a file permissions issue, it will show you a message saying the ‘.htaccess file is not writeable’.

Manually Creating the .htaccess File

If WordPress cannot create the file automatically, then you will need to do it manually.

Simply open a plain text editor like Notepad on your computer.

Copy and paste the standard WordPress rules below into the text file:

# BEGIN WordPress
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^index\.php$ - [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]
</IfModule>
# END WordPress
Hosted with ❤️ by WPCode
1-click Use in WordPress

Note: If your WordPress site is installed in a subdirectory (like yourdomain.com/blog/), then you must change the RewriteBase / line to RewriteBase /blog/.

Now, save the file on your desktop as .htaccess. Make sure your text editor doesn’t add a .txt extension to the file name when you save it.

Next, connect to your website using an FTP client and upload the .htaccess file to your site’s root directory (usually /public_html)

If you get an error while uploading, you may need to change the file permission for your root directory to 755.

What to Do If You Still Can’t Create or Edit .htaccess

In our experience managing hundreds of WordPress sites, we’ve occasionally seen server configurations or even security plugins that prevent you from modifying the .htaccess file. This is usually done as a security measure.

If you’ve tried the troubleshooting tips above and still can’t get it to work, the best course of action is to contact your WordPress hosting provider’s support team. They have access to server logs and can quickly identify and fix the issue.

For more tips, see our guide on how to ask for WordPress support and get it.

Frequently Asked Questions About the .htaccess File

Here are some of the most common questions we get asked about the .htaccess file.

What is the default code for a WordPress .htaccess file?

The standard, default code for a basic WordPress installation is provided above. However, many security and caching plugins will add their own rules to this file to improve your website’s performance and security.

Is it safe to delete the .htaccess file?

Yes, it is generally safe to delete the .htaccess file as a troubleshooting step. WordPress can regenerate a new, default file if you go to Settings » Permalinks and click ‘Save Changes’. Deleting it will disable any custom rules from your plugins, but it can help solve errors like the internal server error.

Can a plugin create or modify the .htaccess file?

Yes, many plugins modify the .htaccess file. Caching plugins like WP Rocket add rules to manage browser caching, while security plugins like All in One SEO might add rules to block malicious bots or enforce security headers.

Additional Resources for Troubleshooting WordPress

We hope this article has helped you find the .htaccess file on your WordPress site. You may also want to see our WordPress troubleshooting guide to fix common errors and our list of the best WordPress plugins to grow your website.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

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Reader Interactions

81 CommentsLeave a Reply

  1. I used this guide to solved the issue of mistakenly deleted my htaccess file from Cpanel file manager.
    Thanks for the guide.
    Note: I have even cleared the trash files already, so couldn’t not restored the file but to create another on and this guide is useful.

    Reply

    • If you have multiple with the same name for some reason, you may want to check with your hosting provider’s support in case it was set up for something specific to your hosting provider.

      Reply

      Admin

  7. I still can’t find the .htaccess file. I’m using a free WP site (so plugins aren’t available), and there’s no “permalinks” section in the admin for me to manually create the file. What should I do?
    Thanks!

    Reply

  8. After a php version update my site went down. The hosting company are no help at all. I read your blog and updated my permalinks file and all works fine now. Many thanks, Tom : )

    Reply

  12. Quite a Helpful article, thankyou. one question though do we really need .htaccess file as being an administrator?

    Reply

    • Yes, your site should have an .htaccess file. It handles some things on your site and gives you more tools you can use.

      Reply

      Admin

  16. Thanks that was really helpful. I did not save changes for the first time and also the permission as you said. Once i did that i worked fine thanks again

    Reply

  17. Thanks for the help, this blog helps me a lot, i had been working to resolve this for 3 days.

    in my case file name was not written, i have identified it with file type.

    100% beginner also not an IT guy. :)

    once again Thanks a lot

    Reply

  18. Also you may not be able to the find .htaccess file on the site server, since NGNIX is being used.

    Reply

  19. hi. I tried to see if the file was hidden. This didn’t start showing .htaccess. I then went to permalinks and saved changes (even tried updating some settings and updating again) a few times. I didn’t get any text from WP. It just accepted the changes. I still can’t see the htaccess file.
    Not sure why this is happening. Can you please help.

    Reply

    • You may want to check your hosting provider to see if they see the htaccess on their end.

      Reply

      Admin

  20. hey there,
    I followed the instructions step by step, however I still cannot find the .htaccess -.-
    when I create one on my mac with text pad (or should I use word doc?) and try to paste it via ftp (filezilla) in the ” / ” folder but it still does’nt work.

    The links on my wordpress shows “404 Not Found nginx”

    please help!!

    Reply

    • You may want to ensure you don’t have a file extension on the end of your .htaccess file as that is one of the more common reasons it does not work.

      Reply

      Admin

    • Go in WordPress and then click on settings and then select permalinks and then select plain and then save changes

      Reply

  21. hey . i need your help regarding my cpanel . it shows only text and when i click on any tool it gets logged out. i have tried many ways to repair my cpanel but can’t resolved it . i m using cloudflare though.

    Reply

  22. This probably worked once, but no longer. No message appears on the Permalinks page when you save it. Show Hidden Files in FileZilla doesn’t reveal the .htaccess file. Pretty much useless from the get-go.

    Reply

  23. Very weird! Please help. I did find my .htaccess file and copied and pasted the code into it. Now all pages are secure except the home page. Any help would be appreciated.

    thanks,
    Ted

    Reply

  24. :( I followed all the steps but I still don’t see an .htaccess file in my FTP. I didn’t see any message at the bottom of the page after I clicked “save changes” on my permalink page.

    Reply

  26. The htaccess rewrite worked! Thanks ever so much for your help. Brain is fried after a complete loss of dashboard today. I had to create a .htaccess file and upload it through ftp.

    Thanks again

    :)

    Reply

  27. OMG thank you. I added this to my .htaccess file

    php_value upload_max_filesize 64M
    php_value post_max_size 64M
    php_value max_execution_time 300
    php_value max_input_time 300

    FTP wouldn’t let me overwrite .htaccess so I uploaded it as .htaccess-new then deleted .htaccess and renamed .htaccess-new to .htaccess

    Yay!

    Reply

  28. Hello,

    I am unable to select any of the code in the box to recreate my .htaccess file. It appears to be an image file only…

    Thanks.

    Reply

  30. Can you please tell me how to keep WP back end log in longer time when i am on back end for uploading? because due to SSL, it automatically logs out of the account in some minutes and ask me to log in again. this is troublesome, thank you

    Reply

  31. The permalinks solution didn’t work for me either.

    In cPanel I have a page that will allow me to edit 403 (forbidden) but when I click on the code to edit I’m absolutely lost which is very annoying as I’m sure it must be easy to do, if only I knew how!

    Can anyone explain please?

    Sincerely

    Kay

    Reply

  32. Hi!

    I am new to wordpress and have set up my wordpress site this weekend. To ensure it is safe, I followed the htaccess/htpasswd settings today and all worked fine.

    After some hours, I could not access my wordpress site anymore but get the error message

    [Tue Nov 01 20:31:36 2016] [authn_file:error] [pid 26428] [client xxx.xxx.xx.xxx] [host xxx.xxx.de] AH01620: Could not open password file: /XXX.htpasswd

    How can I overcome this issue?

    thanks for any help!
    Axel

    Reply

  33. You have a wonderful page. My only objection is that font sizes are too samall. I print everything I read

    Reply

  38. Hey.. I played around with WP rocket and cleared my .htaccess – Now i am missing elements and sections of my webpage. I have tired to disable minifying. But still nothing happens.

    Really i have no idea of what made these sections disappear . Any one have an idea of what i should try?

    Reply

  39. Is there any way or some how I can make my audio wp content downloading be available to all mobile device,like if I just upload audio to W-P it is only some specific device that would be able to download it with streaming online.like I need help on how to make my audio link download on all mobile device.

    Reply

  40. Having tried the above I still can’t see my htacess file and I do not get the message saying not rewritable under permalinks. Can anybody help, I’ve been getting the 500 Internal Server Error for two days now and am desperate to update to the latest version of Wordpress. My site is slow and shows the message frequently. Any help would be gratefully appreciated.

    Reply

  41. WP Maximum Execution Time Exceeded.
    give it a try.
    its working now i get relief.
    thanks for your help.
    i really appreciate your work.
    thanks thanks thanks!!!

    Reply

  43. Solved: Yesterday I started my second wp site, all went well until I noticed that all permalink options didn`t work except the default one, every time I changed to another permalink structure, I received the famous 404 error. I cross referanced with my first wp site, and noticed that the web.config file was not in the root. Obviously I copied and pasted the web.config file from my first site to my new site, refreshed and now all permalinks work fine.

    Reply

  47. It’s worth pointing out that your .htaccess file might be missing because you don’t need one. For instance the Nginx web server doesn’t use .htaccess files for security and performance reasons.

    Reply

  48. Hope you do not intended to leave permission at 755 for the file or anyone would be able to hack your site via that file no ?

    Reply

  49. I had occasion to look around for some redirection plugins for WP, and I noticed that some implement “hit counters.” I suspect all of them have to put something in the .htaccess file. I would love to see an article that goes into more depth on redirection, link cloaking, and hit counters.

    Reply

  50. Isnt it easier co create .htacces right in cPanel (if you dont have it) rather than saving in notepad and uploading via ftp?
    I think that way is more easier and faster.

    Reply

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