Premium content refuses password

I noticed later that even when logged in, the url

https://www.blahblah.com/feed/friends/

Pops up asking for a username and password and nothing works, even the admin username/password fails and another empty password field pops up.

• This reply was modified 6 years, 1 month ago by omdaddi.

This page has more information on using PowerPress for premium podcast feeds:
https://create.blubrry.com/resources/powerpress/advanced-tools-and-options/premium-podcasting-content/

Are you using any specific plugins for your premium usernames/passwords?

That’s the page I’ve been reading to set it up.

No, this is a brand new clean WordPress install. I’ve only installed the PowerPress plugin and used the built in user manager to add one user.

I did some more testing this morning.

I noticed that the when the user/password box pops up the page behind is never changed, it only displays something when I give up and click “Cancel” when it says “Unauthorised”, until that point the page remains on what it was before I typed in the feed URL.

I also looked at the source of page powerpress-feed-source.php and found this:

/*
* php-cgi under Apache does not pass HTTP Basic user/pass to PHP by default
* For this workaround to work, add this line to your .htaccess file:
* RewriteRule .* - [E=HTTP_AUTHORIZATION:%{HTTP:Authorization}]
*/

I tried it but it made no difference.

I’ve asked the lead developer of PowerPress to look at your question. A response will be posted here as soon as he has a chance to look at your post.

Please go here:
https://www.blubrry.com/contact/
Click the Select link underneath All Other Inquiries and choose Technical Support. Fill out the form with your questions and someone will get back to you with assistance.

The lead developer of PowerPress took a quick look over your question but he doesn’t have any immediate suggestions. It is sometimes necessary for Blubrry to do a paid consult in order to help with these kinds of issues. Regardless, submit a ticket thru the link above and someone will get back to you.

I am having a similar problem. I have been running a protected feed for some time. Over the past few days, users can’t login. I have changed their passwords and tried myself, and I cannot login, so I have concluded it is not wrong passwords.

I am the admin on the site. I can get the feed to come up. Nobody else can. I have cleared my cache and taken numerous steps.

I have noticed a newish setting called “PodcastMirror Feed URL.” Might that have messed up authentication somehow?

Hello @tedstur,

Did anything change with your web host? The biggest problems with premium podcasting is caused when web hosting services are using nginx or fastcgi module which causes authentication not to pass onto the PHP scripts. Using a service like CloudFlare will also cause such issues. Without sharing web links and passwords we really cannot help you other than point you at our documentation.

If you are providing a password protected podcast feed, you cannot use a feed caching services such as PodcastMirror.com. That service is meant for public accessible feeds.

When it comes to web hosting and allowing for HTTP authentication, no two situations are the same. If you have specific problems we can help you via our paid consulting services. With a consult you pay per hour and you get one of our staff (if not myself) dedicated time to help you resolve any issues you have via Gotomeeting or Skype.

Thanks,
Angelo

FWIW I disabled all php security on my domain with the help of my support with

<IfModule security2_module>
SecRuleEngine Off
SecRequestBodyAccess Off
</IfModule>

They felt it would make no difference and they were right.

The solution turned out to be this, supplied by seriously simple podcasting – might give them a try!

https://support.castos.com/seriously-simple-podcasting-plugin/faq/why-does-the-feed-password-protection-feature-not-work

If you add password protection to your podcast RSS feed, but when you input the username and password you still don’t gain access to the feed then the most likely issue is that your server has FastCGI installed. FastCGI removes the PHP_AUTH_USER and PHP_AUTH_PW variables from the $_SERVER superglobal.

In order to work around this you will need to the following code to your site’s .htaccess file above all the WordPress rules that are already in there:

RewriteRule .* - [E=HTTP_AUTHORIZATION:%{HTTP:Authorization}]

I have been working this… and the above solution is not my solution.

I know because I can login with my admin account, but my users cannot login with their “Premium Subscriber” roles. Other admin accounts work as well. I have messed about with the capabilities of different roles and can get things to work when I turn on and off different capabilities. In the setup screen for this channel I have checked on “Require user to be signed-in to access feed” and selected “Read Feed” as the capability a user must have.

However, Premium Subscriber is a role I have for over 5,000 accounts and it needs to work. I installed User Role Editor and checked to find that Premium Subscriber has a role called “Read Feed” and it is checked on. “Read Feed” is the same role I have enabled in blubrry. I also checked the role for my user name and a user who cannot access the feed and they both have this capability checked on.

Thoughts??

The same answer that @omdaddi posted is also documented on blubrry.com https://create.blubrry.com/resources/powerpress/advanced-tools-and-options/premium-podcasting-content/premium-podcasting-q/ Same issue, if you are hosting with FastCGI this may fix your issue, but you need to contact your web host in such a case as you may still not have permission to add said lines to your .htaccess file. To check for FastCGI, go to PowerPress > Tools, at the bottom there is a link for “Diagnostics” click that and then view the results on that page.

Link to all of the premium podcasting documentation here including documentation for specific membership plugins: https://create.blubrry.com/resources/powerpress/advanced-tools-and-options/premium-podcasting-content/

@tedstur, double check the Premium Subscriber role has the “Read Feed” capability.

Can a user who signs into your website as a Premium Subscriber access the premium episodes in the episode pages?

You mentioned that administrators work but subscribers do not. Can you get an Editor with the capability “read Feed” added? What I wonder is if the capability is not the issue but the role is the issue in your case. If Editor works, then other required permissions (capabilities) may be missing from the “Premium Subscriber” role. For example, Premium Subscriber may n longer be able to sign in, at which case WordPress (not PowerPress) is not allowing the authentication to happen because there is the lack of capabilities in the role.

Are you using Post Types or podcast channel feeds?

Thanks,
Angelo

Same thing here. My hosting uses FPM and can’t get that authentication working. Any workaround?

Still no go for me. I disabled almost all plugins and result was the same.

Hello @boluda,

Contact your web host or server administrator, tell them you want “Basic Authentication” headers from your web server to be passed to the PHP scripts. Send them a link to this thread. A server admin with a grain of salt will be able to read this thread and know what to do with their infrastructure to make this happen.

Hello @tedstur,

Did you follow the instructions at https://create.blubrry.com/resources/powerpress/advanced-tools-and-options/premium-podcasting-content/ and also did you make sure your server is passing the authentication headers to your PHP scripts, as noted in the FAQ: https://create.blubrry.com/resources/powerpress/advanced-tools-and-options/premium-podcasting-content/premium-podcasting-q/

With what you said last time you are trying to make different roles and capabilities, my suggestion is to create a brand new site (test.yourdomain.com) with a default theme like twentyseventeen and just the PowerPress plugin. Use the built in capability and role in PowerPress to verify you can get this to work on your web host. If everything works, then you at least know there is something a miss with your roles and capabilities.

Remember we charge $100/hour for consulting if you want one-on-one assistance setting up password protected / premium podcasting. Learn more: https://create.blubrry.com/blubrry-support/podcast-consulting-services/

Thanks,
Angelo