How to Protect Media Library Uploads

Hi,

If you activate “Prevent Hotlinks” feature under Firewall menu, your media files should be protected from direct access.

Greets,
?eslav

The Prevent Hotlinks feature does not work for me. If I utilize the direct URL to the file (while no logged on to site), I am able to access the file.

Hi,

The statement I made above is false. “Prevent Hotlinks” feature does not prevent direct access, it only prevents hotlinking. In other words: it prevents images (or other media) from your site to be directly embedded on other website.

Cheers,
?eslav

Thanks for the reply – I had installed your plugin specifically for this functionality, but see it as a great utility regardless. Unfortunate that this functionality is not native to WordPress or easily available via plugin. I’ve found “Download Monitor” as a potential solution, but have installed it and it’s convoluted in it’s use.

@sdommer, you might like to read the following instructions. This will help you protect your media upload.

Kind regards

Thank you for the suggestion of the .htaccess method. My requirement is to secure all files from reading by anyone unless logged on to the site, similar to what was asked by the OP. I would think that this would be possible by placing the files within the database tables rather than on filesystem directories.

@sdommer, Did you find a solution? I have the same issue. Google indexing my PDF’s in searchers and pirates pick them up ( or hunt them directly). What code