.htpasswd and .htgroup file permissions locked and not changing

Hi there,

Seasoned Amember veteran of 5 years here to see if anyone knows the solution to this issue.

BACKGROUND:

I've got 5 Amembers all on the same dedicated server.

All of them were recently upgraded to 3.2.4 -- so they should all be current.

PROBLEM:

On one of them, I attempted to "Remove Old Records" and I get:

"Cannot open /home/searchen/public_html/power/data/.htpasswd for write. Make directory /home/******/public_html/power/data and this file writeable for PHP scripts. Please read FAQ item about this issue"

Okay -- so /power/data/ folder is already 777'd -- can't do nothing there, but the .htpasswd is not 777'd.

I also read the FAQ and tried to make both .htpasswd and .htgroup readable, but the server refuses to make the file readable -- it's like the file is locked.

Went over to another Amember on the same server and that .htpasswd and .htgroup is 777'd -- no problem. Same with 3 other installs.

Of course -- I don't have WordPress in the main root on other Amember installations -- so I'm figuring there could be some .htaccess conflict that's locking the files in question.

Anyone know possibly what this could be without having to thumb around in all different places?

Thanks for your input and enlightenment.

Please note that I *do* have the .htpasswd plugin activated.

Just read someone else asking this -- so I thought I would snuff that out right away... ;-)

Okay -- more info on this:

.htaccess file on problem Amember -- same exact exists for a working one

<Limit GET POST>
deny from all
</Limit>


.htaccess from root of domain where there is no permissions locked issue:

# -FrontPage-

IndexIgnore .htaccess */.??* *~ *# */HEADER* */README* */_vti*

<Limit GET POST>
order deny,allow
deny from all
allow from all
</Limit>
<Limit PUT DELETE>
order deny,allow
deny from all
</Limit>
AuthName workingdomain.com
AuthUserFile /home/*******/public_html/_vti_pvt/service.pwd
AuthGroupFile /home/*******/public_html/_vti_pvt/service.grp

# BEGIN WordPress
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]
</IfModule>

# END WordPress




.htaccess from root of domain where WordPress is installed and there IS a permissions locked issue:


# BEGIN WordPress
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^index\.php$ - [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]
</IfModule>

# END WordPress

# BEGIN BLOG HOSTING PART
# Deny search bots
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} (google|gsa-crawler|msn|yahoo|Y!|SpiderMan|crawler|Scooter|AltaVista|Slurp) [NC]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^/(wp-admin/|wp-login.php)
RewriteRule .* - [F]
</IfModule>

<IfModule mod_security.c>
<Files xmlrpc.php>
SecFilterInheritance Off
</Files>
</IfModule>
# END BLOG HOSTING PART

Skippy

I need some decipherance.

When you say web account -- I can get into my WHM and/or Cpanel for the site itself.

While I can modify code, I do not do command line -- so where exactly would I go to CHOWN the files.

BTW -- I can change permissions on EVERY OTHER file on the domain but the two mentioned. It's not that that I can't change permissions on any other file on the domain's account -- it's just the two files in question.

Thx for any help