Fixing "Snapshot folder web access"

Snapshot archives contain your extensions' files and data from their database tables. They must not be downloadable from the web.

AutoPilot protects the snapshot folder with a .htaccess file (Apache) and a web.config file (IIS), and recreates them if they disappear. The archive names cannot be guessed either. Nginx ignores .htaccess. On Nginx, and on Apache hosts that are set to ignore .htaccess files (AllowOverride None), the folder is therefore not protected by these files.

That is why AutoPilot tests it for real: once a day it tries to fetch a file from the snapshot folder over HTTP. If that works, System health shows the warning Snapshot folder web access. Fix it in one of two ways.

1. Move the folder outside the web root (recommended). Go to Settings → Snapshots & retention → Snapshot Folder and enter an absolute path that the web server does not serve, for example:

/home/youruser/autopilot-snapshots

Save. AutoPilot moves the existing snapshots there. The folder must be writable by PHP. The health check then reads "The folder is outside the site, so it cannot be read over the web."

2. Block the folder in the server configuration. On Nginx, add this to the site's server block and reload Nginx:

location ^~ /administrator/components/com_autopilotpro/snapshots/ { deny all; }

The warning itself shows the exact path to use for your site. The test is repeated once a day; saving a changed Snapshot Folder runs it again at once.

When the card shows a Note instead. "The web access test could not be completed" means the site could not fetch its own test file: some hosts block requests from the server to itself, and some servers answer with an error page. The folder is then neither confirmed as protected nor shown as open. Check it yourself: open https://your-site/administrator/components/com_autopilotpro/snapshots/index.html in a browser. An error page ("Forbidden", "Not found", "Internal Server Error") means the folder is protected. An empty white page means it is served, so use one of the two fixes above.