# Password Protect PHP Error

**URL:** <https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/password-protect-php-error/54176>\
**Category:** Elements\
**Created:** [February 7, 2026, 12:50pm UTC](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/password-protect-php-error/54176 "2026-02-07T12:50:18Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![jwDave](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/forums.realmacsoftware.com/jwdave/32/31841_2.png) [@jwDave](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/u/jwDave)\
**Post date:** [February 7, 2026, 12:50pm UTC](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/password-protect-php-error/54176/1 "2026-02-07T12:50:18Z")

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I have a site I manage and one page just has text and images, another has a password protected setion, they work fine. I wanted to combine the 2 pages onto one with 2 Tabs. this I did and it previews perfectly, however when I publish and select the new tabs page I get the following error:

false, ‘message’ =\> $errorMessageText ]); exit; } } // Re-check authentication (may have been restored from cookie) $isAuthenticated\_rw18D032F0\_1205\_4C0F\_9DF3\_66A51586E216 = password\_protect\_is\_authenticated(‘password\_protect\_elements’); // Capture the protected content for AJAX response ob\_start(); ?\>

It is also going to the 2nd tab by default (the page with the password protected section) even though I have set the default to the 1st page and it also ignores the password protection and displays the content.

I stress however that previewing this page works perfectly.

Any houghts on what this error means?

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**Author:** ![dan](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/forums.realmacsoftware.com/dan/32/28516_2.png) [@dan](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/u/dan)\
**Post date:** [February 7, 2026, 1:13pm UTC](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/password-protect-php-error/54176/2 "2026-02-07T13:13:39Z")

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Ensure the new page is set to [.php and not .html](https://docs.realmacsoftware.com/elements-docs/components/password-protect-paid#setup), that should fix the issue for you 🙂

Oh, and don’t forget to remove the old .html file from the server as it may still get served up before the .php file.

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**Author:** ![jwDave](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/forums.realmacsoftware.com/jwdave/32/31841_2.png) [@jwDave](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/u/jwDave)\
**Post date:** [February 7, 2026, 1:53pm UTC](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/password-protect-php-error/54176/3 "2026-02-07T13:53:47Z")

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Thanks Dan, sorry to have bothered you, I should have known this was the issue.

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**Author:** ![dan](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/forums.realmacsoftware.com/dan/32/28516_2.png) [@dan](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/u/dan)\
**Post date:** [February 7, 2026, 2:01pm UTC](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/password-protect-php-error/54176/4 "2026-02-07T14:01:48Z")

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No problem, it’s our fault really. We need to add a feature in Elements that warns when you have a component that requires PHP on an HTML page.

Anyway, I’m glad it’s all sorted now 🙂