What Is the 403 Forbidden Error? Causes and Fixes

What should you do when a site keeps showing a 403 Forbidden error while other sites load normally and you have tried everything without fixing it? In this article, MONA Media will help you understand more about the 403 Forbidden error and ways to fix it.

What is a 403 Forbidden error?

The 403 Forbidden error is an HTTP status code error. It means the page or resource you are trying to reach is forbidden for some reason. Different servers usually report 403 errors differently. Some businesses even customize the HTTP 403 error of their company website, but this is uncommon.

The 403 error comes in different forms depending on the case. Sometimes the error arises because the service company web hosting updates something on its system.

In practice, there are several 403 forbidden errors that are common:

• 403 Forbidden
• Forbidden
• Error 403
• HTTP 403
• Forbidden: You don’t have permission to access [directory] on this server
• HTTP Error 403.14 – Forbidden
• Error 403 – Forbidden
• HTTP Error 403 – Forbidden

The 403 forbidden error then appears inside the browser window like a web page. In Internet Explorer (IE), however, the 403 error shows the message “The website declined to show this webpage” and the title bar reads 403 forbidden.

A 403 http error also occurs when opening a link through a Microsoft Office program. In that case the message “Unable to open [url]. Cannot download the information you requested” appears inside the Microsoft Office program.

Even Windows Update reports an HTTP 403 error, shown as the code 0x80244018 or the message “WU_E_PT_HTTP_STATUS_FORBIDDEN”.

Causes of the 403 Forbidden error

If you run into a 403 forbidden error while developing website it can be extremely annoying. Before fixing it, though, you need to know exactly what causes it.

According to MONA, the most basic reason a 403 error occurs is that the site you are visiting has not granted you access.

Errors similar to 403 Forbidden

In practice, some client-side error messages are also related to the forbidden error.

They are the following errors:

• 400 Bad Request.
• 401 Unauthorized.
• 404 Not Found.
• 408 Request Timeout.
• Some server HTTP status codes resemble the 500 Internal Server Error.
• And some other errors.

How to fix the 403 Forbidden error

Method 1: Visit the website at another time

If you have the right page and everyone else gets the same error, the error is on the website's side. You cannot fix it yourself; you can only visit the site again after the error has been fixed. Wait a while and try again.

Method 2: Contact your Internet service provider

If everyone else can open the website but you cannot, try contacting your Internet service provider. It may be that your ISP or public IP address has been banned or blacklisted, causing this http 403 error.

Method 3: Clear browser cookies

Another thing you can try for the 403 Forbidden error is clearing your browser's cookie history. This does not always fully resolve the 403 error code, but it is a simple step worth trying. After clearing cookies, reopen the browser and reload the website to see whether the 403 error still appears.

Method 4: Log in to the website

Some websites require users to log in, so you need to log in before visiting the site.

Method 5: Clear the browser cache and cookies

Often the cache in your browser can be the cause of the 403 Forbidden Error. A quick fix is to clear all cookies in the browser.

See also the guide to clearing cache:

• How to clear the cache in every browser

Method 6: Check the URL and make sure it points to the right file extension

In practice, websites are now configured not to allow directory browsing, so the 403 Forbidden error appears for a directory rather than a specific page. This is arguably the error users meet most often.

Method 7: Disable WordPress plugins

This is probably the most effective method: disable all plugins and re-enable them one by one. Here are the steps to find which plugin is failing:

• Step 1: Connect to your hosting account by FTP. Find the folder that contains the website's files, or public_html.
• Step 2: Next, open the Plugins folder, then go to the folder wp-content and rename it to something else, such as: disabled-plugins. That means you have disabled the plugins.
• Step 3: Try opening the website again; if a plugin was the problem, you will get in. Deactivate the plugins one at a time again, and website checker check whether the site works each time you disable one. This step shows whether a plugin is the cause.
• Step 4: Once the faulty plugin is confirmed, reinstall it or update it.

Other WordPress plugins for reference:

• WordPress auto-posting plugin: an effective SEO tool for news websites
• What is Jetpack? What to know about the Jetpack WordPress plugin
• What is Yoast SEO? How to set up and use Yoast SEO
• WordPress website security methods and plugins

Method 8: Fix permissions

From many years of handling technical issues for clients, MONA knows that a 403 forbidden error can also come from incorrect files or folder permissions.

To fix this, adjust the permissions with the steps below:

• Step 1: Connect to the website through an FTP client.
• Step 2: Go to the root folder of the hosting account.
• Step 3: Next, choose the main folder that holds all the files (usually named public_html), right-click it and choose File Permissions.
• Step 4: Go to Apply to directories only and check it. Enter permission 755, then click OK.
• Step 5: After FileZilla has changed the permission, repeat step 3, then choose apply to files only and enter 644, then click OK.
• Step 6: Visit the website again.

Method 9: Check the .htaccess file

The .htaccess file is usually hidden. To find it, do the following:

• Find the folder File Manager from the hosting Control Panel
• Find the file .htaccess in the public_html directory
• If the .htaccess file still does not appear, choose Settings and then enable Show Hidden Files

The .htaccess file exists on all WordPress sites. If it has been deleted, you need to recreate it manually with the steps below:

• Step 1: Download file .htaccess to your computer and save a copy backup.
• Step 2: On the server, delete this file.

• Step 3: Visit the website.
• Step 4: If the site works, the error came from .htaccess.
• Step 5: Log in to the WordPress dashboard to create a new .htaccess file: choose Settings -> Permalinks.
• Step 6: Choose Save changes.

• Step 7: Your website now has a newly generated .htaccess file

Method 10: Contact the website admin to fix the 403 forbidden error

In many cases the server or hosting – domains of the website you are visiting has a fault. If the website admin does not handle it promptly, the site may go down permanently. Contact the website admin and ask them to fix it quickly so you can get back in.

If none of the solutions above works, contact MONA Media right away. With more than 10 years of experience, a highly capable team and quality hosting infrastructure, we are confident we can help you fix all of the problems above. For more details on our hosting plans, please CONTACT US with MONA qua hotline 1900 636 648 to get detailed advice.

That was a detailed overview of 403 forbidden errors, its causes and the simplest, most effective ways to fix it. We hope the information we have just MONA Media shared is useful and helps you fix this error quickly. Good luck!