Prevent Direct Access (PDA) offers a simple solution to protect your WordPress files as well as prevent Google, other search engines and unwanted users from indexing and stealing your hard-to-produce ebooks, documents, and videos.

We've created an intuitive user interface directly in your Media Library. It's simple and easy to use. You'll be able to protect your private files in no time.

An Inside Look at Prevent Direct Access (PDA) Gold

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37wP7TTcW4Q

Our PDA Lite version offers the following features:

Why do I get this "Plugin could not be activated because it triggered a fatal error"?

It's likely that you're using an outdated version of PHP. Please check and upgrade the PHP version on your server to 5.6 or greater.

In fact, WordPress itself even recommends your host supports PHP version 7.2 or greater for security purposes.

Why nothing happens after I activate the plugin?

Prevent Direct Access supports websites hosted on Apache servers out of the box.

In case you're using WP Engine or other NGINX servers, please check out this instruction on how to update the server configuration for our plugin (Both Lite and Gold version) to work as expected.

In case you’re using Internet Information Services (IIS) web server, please check out this instruction on how to update the server configuration for our plugin (Both Lite and Gold version) to work as expected.

Why do I see a warning message on top after activating the plugin?

The plugin needs to add some mod_rewrite rules to your website .htaccess file (located on your website root folder) to prevent direct access to your files on the server.

So it's likely that your .htaccess is not writable (with at least 644 permissions; whose owner must be also accessible by your apache server such as www-data). If that's the case, you must either make it writable or manually update your .htaccess with the mod_rewrite rules found under Settings > Permalinks.

= How many files can I protect? Since PDA Lite version 2.7.7, you can protect unlimited files under your Media Library.

Why can’t I use the plugin in multisite mode?

The Lite version of this plugin only supports Apache, Nginx, and IIS single sites. Multisite mode is supported in our Gold version with the PDA Multisite extension installed.

2.8.8.7 April 06, 2026

• [Bugfix] Resolved an issue causing redirect conflict with the Pro plugin and addressed warnings.

2.8.8.6 March 23, 2026

• [Bugfix] Fixed an issue where the reason for plugin deactivation was not being captured correctly.

2.8.8.5 March 20, 2026

• [Improvement] Resolved WordPress Coding Standards (WPCS) issues.
• [Improvement] Enhanced overall code quality and strengthened security.
• [Feature] Added a plugin deactivation feedback modal. Users are now prompted with a popup upon deactivation to select a reason, helping us collect valuable insights for further improvements.

2.8.8.4 Dec 23, 2025

• [Feature] Added an onboarding Opt-In/Opt-Out screen on first plugin activation, allowing users to grant or deny analytics consent.
• [Feature] Introduced GreyLayout for locked premium features, displaying all Gold features in the Free version as disabled/locked with clear labels.
• [Improvement] Improved the initial setup flow to provide a clearer and more compliant user experience.
• [Improvement] Refined the UI/UX to better distinguish between Free and Gold features.

2.8.8.3 Apr 23, 2025

• [Improvement] Security: Restrict REST API access to file protection endpoints to admin users only.

2.8.8.2 Feb 26, 2025

• [Bugfix] Resolved the developer tool alert issue for page builders.

2.8.8.1 Feb 17, 2025

• [Bugfix] Fixed an issue with shortcut blocking and detection in developer tools prevention.
• [Improvement] Enhanced security measures for generating unique strings.

2.8.8 Jan 28, 2025

• [Improvement] Added customizable right-click alert with tooltip message.
• [Improvement] Enhanced developer tools prevention with shortcut blocking and detection.

2.8.7 July 01, 2024

• [Bug Fix] Resolved issues with Protection and Unprotection links for custom upload directories without year-month paths.

2.8.6.1 May 15, 2024

• [Bugfix] Code improvements and optimizations

2.8.6 May 13, 2024

• [Bugfix] Fixed Callback permission in rest api

2.8.5 September 11, 2023

• [Improvement] Comprehensive code comment documentation has been added
• [Improvement] Added text domains for strings in places where they were previously missing
• [Improvement] Removed unnecessary commented-out code, ensuring a cleaner and more efficient codebase
• [Improvement] The settings page sidebar has been revised to provide users with updated information and a helpful guide

2.8.4 April 07, 2023

• [Fix] Free plugin not working if we have install premium plugin and activate the license and then deactivate the premium plugin

2.8.3 Dec 16, 2022

• [Improvement] Disable right-clicks on iFrames
• [Improvement] Show error messages when protecting deleted files
• [Improvement] Show confirmation messages when protect/unprotect files under Media Library Grid View

2.8.2 August 25, 2022

• [Improvement] Show alert messages when right-clicking on web pages
• [Improvement] Disable more keyboard shortcuts
• [Fix] Allow text input on Safari when disabling right-clicks

2.8.1 Jun 12, 2022

• [New Feature] Restrict media files access to file’s authors only
• [Improvement] Show warning messages on multisites
• [Fix] Show non-latin characters in protected file names

2.8.0 April 20, 2022

• [Improvement] Disable text selection and image drag-and-drop features
• [Improvement] Disable content copy functions
• [Improvement] Display alert message on mouse right click

2.7.10 February 9, 2021

• [Refactoring] Secure input and output data
• [Refactoring] Update Settings UI using WordPress built-in jQuery libraries

2.7.9 Jan 28, 2022

• [New Feature] Provide an settings option to prevent right-clicking on all pages
• [Improvement] Remove “Invite & Earn” submenu & UTM tags on the plugin author URI

2.7.8 December 6, 2021

• Allow admins to access protected files whose FAP are “the file’s author” via a hook
• Display success & error messages when saving IP Restriction settings

2.7.7 October 5, 2021

• Allow protecting unlimited files with PDA Lite plugin
• Improve UI: Remove disabled options

2.7.6 August 13, 2021

• Update embedded documentation links in UI settings
• Test compatibility with WordPress 5.8
• Update GetResponse API 3.0

2.7.5 June 16, 2021

• Provide hook to display PDF thumbnails in the Media Library
• Fix error PHP log when updating a new PDA version

2.7.4 April 7, 2021

• Show rewrite rules for IIS users
• Improve UI: Hide PDA Gold features in the settings page
• Remove error log
• Show Configure pop-up under Media Library for all servers

2.7.3 February 10, 2021

• Improve UI on settings page and show rewrite rules for Nginx users
• Allow users to protect files under Media Library Grid View

2.7.2 December 18, 2020

• Allow admin users to access protected files

2.7.1 August 24, 2020

• Fix PHP notices with WP 5.5

2.7.0 June 16, 2020

• PDA Gold requires PDA Lite
• Un-protecting files don't update _pda_protection value
• Remove unused files & folders
• Hide "upgrade to PDA Gold" notice if PDA Gold is active
• Change the domain of translation
• Do not support in multisite mode

2.6.0 April 3, 2020

• Improve UI: compatible with WordPress 5.3
• Allow the file's author to access protected file by default

2.5.1.2 February 5, 2020

• Improve UI: hide Like Plugin column in the settings page

2.5.1.1 November 16, 2019

• Fix add_submenu_page PHP notice issue

2.5.1 November 7, 2019

• Add feature "Prevent Image Hotlinking"
• Prevent Google Indexing for private links
• Fix file access permission when filename contains size

2.5.0.4 October 4, 2019

• Improve UI under settings page

2.5.0.3 August 9, 2019

• Update switch button under settings page
• Show notification when saving settings successfully

2.5.0.2 May 16, 2019

• Fix get lucky button

2.5.0.1 December 04, 2018

• Fix typo

2.5.0 November 18, 2018

• Revamp UI

2.4.0.1 August 10, 2018

• Hot fix [] array declaration cannot work under PHP version < 5.4

2.4.0 June 14, 2018

• Fix cannot remove rewrite rules when deactivate plugin

2.3.9 Tue, April 17, 2018

• Fix "This plugin is not properly prepared for localization"

2.3.8 Thu, April 12, 2018

• Apply localisation

2.3.7 Wed, February 28, 2018

• Test WordPress 4.9.4

2.3.6 Wed, January 31, 2018

• Fix undefined index when get option FREE_PDA_SETTINGS

2.3.5 Fri, January 26, 2018

• Improve UI for settings page

2.3.4 Tue, January 23, 2018

• Improve UI on settings page by revamping checkbox option
• Integrate stop image hotlinking feature
• Show information in order to know whether the file is protected

2.3.3 Mon, January 8, 2018

• Revamp settings page

2.3.2 Wed, November 15, 2017

• Fix wp::prepare warning messages when using in WordPress version 4.8.3.

2.3.1: Sat, November 4, 2017

• Add warning messages when users are using a deprecated wp api plugin.

2.3: Thu, August 17, 2017

• Protect files from search engine's index

2.2: Wed, June 14, 2017

• Add settings page

2.1.5: Thu, June 1, 2017

• Notify users to upgrade to Gold version
• Update plugin's data after users remove media files

2.1.4: Mon, May 22, 2017

• Change the way to get non-protected URL
• Redirect to default 404 page if the file is protected
• Support websites hosted on WP Engine

2.1.3: February 25, 2017

• Tweak: Change the plugin's logic to cater for those files that couldn't be found in the _postmeta table

2.1.2

• Fix Twitter, Google Plus and Facebook open graph issue

2.1.1

• Fix .htaccess rules to recognize the special characters
• Find in _postmeta table in case of cropped images via wordpress

There are 2 easy ways to install our plugin:

1.The standard way

• In your Admin, go to menu Plugins > Add

• Search for "Prevent Direct Access"

• Click to install

• Activate the plugin

• Protect your files under the Media Library

2.The nerdy way

• Download the plugin (.zip file) on the right column of this page

• In your Admin, go to menu Plugins > Add

• Select the tab "Upload"

• Upload the .zip file you just downloaded

• Activate the plugin

• Protect your files under the Media Library

Once you have installed the plugin, click Activate



Go to Media to protect your files. Prevent Direct Access works best on List View.



There’s an extra column called "Prevent Direct Access" auto-generated by our plugin. Click on "Configure file protection" and start protecting your private file.



Click on "Protect this file" button to make the file private.



The file is now "protected". Its File Access Permission is set to "The file's author", which means it's accessible to the file's author only. Other users are able to access your protected file using a private download link.



You can also protect your file under Media Grid View.



There’s an extra “Prevent Direct Access” option generated by our plugin under Attachment Details. Check the “Protect this file” box to protect your file.



Once your file is protected, it’ll have a red border.