I am using apache 2.4.7 with mod_proxy_fcgi for purpose of passing through php to php-fpm (this will be used for shared hosting environment). The htaccess works fine for non php files, but once it hit rewrite rule that proxies through the php requests, the htaccess is ignored. I know why it is happening. The question is: how do I work around it? The question how do I force apache to treat the request to php file as a request to local file, and then proxy it through? I have spent substantial time in researching on this problem, and following "answers" were given as solution: 1) "use apache configuration instead of .htaccess" it is valid solution, but not for shared hosting environment (I am not going to give access to apache configuration to shared hosting customers ;)). 2) "don't use .htaccess, as it has performance/security/other issues", well how else would shared hosting customers control access/url rewriting on their site? Besides if the .htaccess was not a requirement I would simply use nginx. 3) "put rewrite rule for proxy inside of " - this is incorrect, and it does not work. This behaviour appears to be not a bug but a "feature" as per https://issues.apache.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=54887