Removing the “Your backup folder MIGHT be visible to the public” Message Generated by the WP-DBManager Plugin

I upgraded a client’s WordPress from 2.8 to 3.0.1 and after upgrading I am now receiving this message in the dashboard:

Your backup folder MIGHT be visible to
the public

To correct this issue, move the
.htaccess file from
wp-content/plugins/wp-dbmanager to
/home/usearname/public_html/wp-content/backup-db

My client’s WordPress in installed in the /wordpress/ sub-directory, i.e.:

http://domain-name.com/wordpress/

This was provided by the plugin to resolve the problem (the filename is wp-content/plugins/wp-dbmanager/htaccess.txt):

<Files ~ ".*\..*">
order allow,deny
deny from all
</Files>

I downloaded this file on my PC then re-uploaded to the server at:

/home/usearname/public_html/wp-content/backup-db/

but warning message is still showing in the dashbord. How do I solve this problem?

gear-solid**:

Looking in the Source Code…

Here’s the function from WP-DBManager Plugin that generates that error:

function dbmanager_admin_notices() {
  $backup_options = get_option('dbmanager_options');
  if(!@file_exists($backup_options['path'].'/.htaccess')) {
    echo '<div class="error" style="text-align: center;"><p style="color: red; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">'.__('Your backup folder MIGHT be visible to the public', 'wp-postratings').'</p><p>'.sprintf(__('To correct this issue, move the <strong>.htaccess</strong> file from <strong>wp-content/plugins/wp-dbmanager</strong> to <strong>%s</strong>', 'wp-postratings'), $backup_options['path']).'</p></div>';
  }
}

Check the Source of the Error (pun intended…)

The key test is:

file_exists($backup_options['path'].'/.htaccess')

So your Problem is…?

Reading the test above tells me your problem is either one of these two:

1. You uploaded .htaccess.txt without removing the .txt extension , or

2. The plugin is configured to back up into a different directory and thus you uploaded the file to the wrong place.

Finding the Backup Directory

If the latter, you can find the backup directory (after substituting your domain for example.com) here:

http://example.com/wp-admin/admin.php?page=wp-dbmanager/wp-dbmanager.php

Here’s a screenshot the admin console page where you can find that option:

Of course another option would be to disable the plugin and use something else to back up the site, assuming that’s an option.

My Guess on What’s Wrong?

If I had to bet I’d lay money on the likelihood you didn’t realize you needed to remove the .txt extension because the plugin just assumes users would know to remove the extension and thus doesn’t explicitly state to do so. If the user is already familiar with .htaccess file then it’s a no-brainer; for everyone else it’s greek!