Why are visitors receiving a “403 Forbidden” error page when they try to view the contents of a directory?

If a directory does not contain a default page (ie. index.html), then visitors will receive a “403 Error > Forbidden” page. This is because for security reasons, directory listing is disabled by default. Once you upload your index.html page, they will no longer see this warning.

If you wish to enable directory listing for a website or a directory of your website, you’ll need to create a .htaccess file in your public directory that contains the following line:

Options +Indexes

Next upload this .htaccess file to the directories that you wish to make publicly browsable. If you want this to be applied to your entire site, then you’ll need to upload it to the top level of your public directory directory. If you are already using .htaccess files, make sure that you include the existing information from your current .htaccess files before you upload your new version.

NOTE: By turning on directory listing instead of using an index.html file, you are greatly reducing the security of your website.