Mar, 2015
Resolving File Download Problems
Table of Contents
Disable GZIP Compression Momentarily
If you're running s2Member with mod_deflate for Apache (common on many hosts, including BlueHost), you'll want to add this section to the top of your WordPress .htaccess file so that your installation of Apache will know when it should not use GZIP compression. This .htaccess file should be located in the same root directory as your WordPress files. If you already have an .htaccess file in this location (very common), then please add this snippet right above the section for WordPress itself.
What does this do? It temporarily disables GZIP compression for files that s2Member serves locally via PHP.
# BEGIN s2Member GZIP exclusions
<IfModule rewrite_module>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} (^|\?|&)s2member_file_download\=.+ [OR]
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} (^|\?|&)no-gzip\=1
RewriteRule .* - [E=no-gzip:1]
</IfModule>
# END s2Member GZIP exclusions
↑ UPDATE: Now Added Automatically by s2Member
As of s2Member v120213+, s2Member will automatically attempt to add this code to the .htaccess file at the web root. This disables GZIP compression when s2Member attempts to deliver files. GZIP compression must be disabled during s2Member's attempt to deliver a file via PHP, because files that s2Member delivers via PHP are already compressed. Thus, re-compressing files delivered by a script will corrupt them in your browser. Note that some media playback devices will choke on this as well. It's never a bad idea to place this in your .htaccess file, regardless of server configuration.
More Information About GZIP Compression & s2Member
s2Member makes every attempt to programmatically disable GZIP during it's delivery of a file. However, in some scenarios (with certain server configurations) s2Member may fail to do so. This issue is often related to the use of mod_deflate for GZIP compression. Unfortunately, when s2Member is running on a CGI-based installation of PHP it has only one way to disable GZIP compression via PHP.
The only way for s2Member to disable GZIP compression on a CGI-based installation of PHP is to send: Content-Encoding: none. However, this header goes against standards and was thus removed in more recent versions of s2Member. It's just not a good idea to send an invalid header. It's better to solve the underlying issue. For instance, this invalid header: Content-Encoding: none is known to cause an issue with the WP_Http class. s2Member now empties this header instead of setting it to none, which is the correct standards-compliant method of saying "no GZIP here".
Unfortunately, CGI-based installations of PHP don't look at Content-Encoding: empty as expected. When mod_deflate is being used (which is a good idea, nothing wrong with this) it will attempt to GZIP all PHP script output, regardless of Content-Type. This is a limitation on CGI-based installations of PHP. On installations of PHP running as an Apache module, s2Member has no trouble; because it can call upon apache_setenv('no-gzip'). It's more difficult when dealing with a CGI or FastCGI extension though.
Solution for CGI or FastCGI? Yes, the snippet above resolves the problem. Please make sure you have the snippet (shown above) in the .htaccess file in the root directory of your WordPress installation. This resolves the problem on all PHP installations—even those running via CGI or FastCGI.
Does wp-content/plugins/s2member-files/.htaccess Exist?
You should also have an .htaccess file in your /s2member-files/ directory. If you don't, please re-install s2Member and that will create the proper .htaccess file automatically. Either that, or create this file /wp-content/plugins/s2member-files/.htaccess with the following contents:
<IfModule env_module>
# No GZIP for script-based file downloads.
SetEnv no-gzip 1
</IfModule>
<IfModule rewrite_module>
# Enable symlinks (required for rewrites).
Options +FollowSymLinks
# Enable rewrite and configure base.
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
# Initialize all environment variables we're using below.
RewriteCond %{ENV:s2member_file_download_setup} !^complete$
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ - [E=s2member_file_download_wp_vdir:0,E=s2member_file_download:$1,E=s2member_file_stream:0,E=s2member_file_inline:0,E=s2member_file_storage:0,E=s2member_file_remote:0,E=s2member_file_ssl:0,E=s2member_file_download_key:0,E=s2member_skip_confirmation:0,E=s2member_file_download_setup:complete]
# Handle virtual directories, common on multisite networks.
RewriteCond %{ENV:s2member_file_download_wp_vdir_check} !^complete$
RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} ^(?:GET|HEAD)(?:[\ ]+)(?:/)([_0-9a-zA-Z\-]+/)(?:wp-content/)
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ - [E=s2member_file_download_wp_vdir:,E=s2member_file_download_wp_vdir:%1,E=s2member_file_download_wp_vdir_check:complete]
# Handle streaming download requests via the rewrite engine.
RewriteCond %{ENV:s2member_file_download} ^(.*?)(?:s2member-file-stream/)(.+)$
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ - [N,E=s2member_file_download:,E=s2member_file_download:%1%2,E=s2member_file_stream:,E=s2member_file_stream:&s2member_file_stream=yes]
RewriteCond %{ENV:s2member_file_download} ^(.*?)(?:s2member-file-stream-(.+?)/)(.+)$
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ - [N,E=s2member_file_download:,E=s2member_file_download:%1%3,E=s2member_file_stream:,E=s2member_file_stream:&s2member_file_stream=%2]
# Handle inline file requests via the rewrite engine.
RewriteCond %{ENV:s2member_file_download} ^(.*?)(?:s2member-file-inline/)(.+)$
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ - [N,E=s2member_file_download:,E=s2member_file_download:%1%2,E=s2member_file_inline:,E=s2member_file_inline:&s2member_file_inline=yes]
RewriteCond %{ENV:s2member_file_download} ^(.*?)(?:s2member-file-inline-(.+?)/)(.+)$
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ - [N,E=s2member_file_download:,E=s2member_file_download:%1%3,E=s2member_file_inline:,E=s2member_file_inline:&s2member_file_inline=%2]
# Handle storage specifications via the rewrite engine.
RewriteCond %{ENV:s2member_file_download} ^(.*?)(?:s2member-file-storage-(.+?)/)(.+)$
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ - [N,E=s2member_file_download:,E=s2member_file_download:%1%3,E=s2member_file_storage:,E=s2member_file_storage:&s2member_file_storage=%2]
# Handle remote authorization requests via the rewrite engine.
RewriteCond %{ENV:s2member_file_download} ^(.*?)(?:s2member-file-remote/)(.+)$
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ - [N,E=s2member_file_download:,E=s2member_file_download:%1%2,E=s2member_file_remote:,E=s2member_file_remote:&s2member_file_remote=yes]
RewriteCond %{ENV:s2member_file_download} ^(.*?)(?:s2member-file-remote-(.+?)/)(.+)$
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ - [N,E=s2member_file_download:,E=s2member_file_download:%1%3,E=s2member_file_remote:,E=s2member_file_remote:&s2member_file_remote=%2]
# Handle SSL file requests via the rewrite engine.
RewriteCond %{ENV:s2member_file_download} ^(.*?)(?:s2member-file-ssl/)(.+)$
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ - [N,E=s2member_file_download:,E=s2member_file_download:%1%2,E=s2member_file_ssl:,E=s2member_file_ssl:&s2member_file_ssl=yes]
RewriteCond %{ENV:s2member_file_download} ^(.*?)(?:s2member-file-ssl-(.+?)/)(.+)$
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ - [N,E=s2member_file_download:,E=s2member_file_download:%1%3,E=s2member_file_ssl:,E=s2member_file_ssl:&s2member_file_ssl=%2]
# Handle file download keys via the rewrite engine.
RewriteCond %{ENV:s2member_file_download} ^(.*?)(?:s2member-file-download-key-(.+?)/)(.+)$
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ - [N,E=s2member_file_download:,E=s2member_file_download:%1%3,E=s2member_file_download_key:,E=s2member_file_download_key:&s2member_file_download_key=%2]
# Handle confirmations having beek skipped via the rewrite engine.
RewriteCond %{ENV:s2member_file_download} ^(.*?)(?:s2member-skip-confirmation/)(.+)$
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ - [N,E=s2member_file_download:,E=s2member_file_download:%1%2,E=s2member_skip_confirmation:,E=s2member_skip_confirmation:&s2member_skip_confirmation=yes]
RewriteCond %{ENV:s2member_file_download} ^(.*?)(?:s2member-skip-confirmation-(.+?)/)(.+)$
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ - [N,E=s2member_file_download:,E=s2member_file_download:%1%3,E=s2member_skip_confirmation:,E=s2member_skip_confirmation:&s2member_skip_confirmation=%2]
# Cleanup variables not used in this request. Looking for `0` values.
RewriteCond %{ENV:s2member_file_download_wp_vdir} ^0$
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ - [E=s2member_file_download_wp_vdir:]
RewriteCond %{ENV:s2member_file_stream} ^0$
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ - [E=s2member_file_stream:]
RewriteCond %{ENV:s2member_file_inline} ^0$
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ - [E=s2member_file_inline:]
RewriteCond %{ENV:s2member_file_storage} ^0$
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ - [E=s2member_file_storage:]
RewriteCond %{ENV:s2member_file_remote} ^0$
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ - [E=s2member_file_remote:]
RewriteCond %{ENV:s2member_file_ssl} ^0$
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ - [E=s2member_file_ssl:]
RewriteCond %{ENV:s2member_file_download_key} ^0$
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ - [E=s2member_file_download_key:]
RewriteCond %{ENV:s2member_skip_confirmation} ^0$
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ - [E=s2member_skip_confirmation:]
# Put everything together now and process the internal rewrite.
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ %{ENV:s2member_file_download_wp_vdir}?s2member_file_download=%{ENV:s2member_file_download}%{ENV:s2member_file_stream}%{ENV:s2member_file_inline}%{ENV:s2member_file_storage}%{ENV:s2member_file_remote}%{ENV:s2member_file_ssl}%{ENV:s2member_file_download_key}%{ENV:s2member_skip_confirmation} [QSA,L]
</IfModule>
<IfModule !rewrite_module>
<IfModule authz_core_module>
Require all denied
</IfModule>
<IfModule !authz_core_module>
deny from all
</IfModule>
</IfModule>
