I have WordPress installed in my root directory, for which a RewriteRule is in place. I need to password-protect a subfolder ("blue"), so I set the htaccess in that folder as such. Problem is that the root htaccess RewriteRule is applying to "blue" and thus I get a 404 in the main WordPress site (instead of opening the password dialog for the subfolder). Here's the root htaccess: RewriteEngine on <Files 403.shtml> order allow,deny allow from all </Files> <IfModule mod_rewrite.c> RewriteEngine On RewriteBase / RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d RewriteRule . /index.php [L] </IfModule> I tried inserting this as the second line, to no avail: RewriteRule ^(blue)($|/) - [L] Also tried inserting this before the index.php RewriteRule: RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/blue/ That didn't work either. Also inserted this into the subfolder's htaccess, which didn't work either: <IfModule mod_rewrite.c> RewriteEngine off </IfModule> Any ideas?