Hi, I am receiving a Magento 401 unauthorized access error on the  Web Setup Wizard. Can you please look into this immediately?

Our Support engineers receive a number of Magento related requests from webmasters, web hosts, and other online service providers as a part of our Magento Hosting Support. The request above is among them.

Magento 401 Unauthorised Access error is triggered due to a variety of reasons. It includes SSL settings conflicts, browser incompatibilities, etc. Today let’s look at the possible reasons for this error and its fixes.

What causes Magento 401 unauthorized access error?

The Setup Wizard helps to install and uninstall components, modules, and extensions, manage modules, upgrade your installation, and make changes to the Web setup of your Magento installation. But, at times users face “401 Unauthorised Access” while accessing the Setup Wizard due to a number of reasons. The common reasons to point out are:

• Magento version incompatibilities.
• Incompatibilities with SSL settings in Magento Configuration
• Alternate reasons

Let us discuss in detail about each of these scenarios and how to fix them.

How to fix Magento 401 unauthorized access error?

Adjusting a few settings in the Magento configuration file can fix the Magento 401 unauthorized access error easily. This depends on the exact reason that triggered the error. The solution for each case is listed below:

Incompatibilities with SSL settings in Magento Configuration

The recommended and safe configuration for Magento is to enable SSL for Magento admin. However, at times, when we access the Web Setup wizard from the Magento Admin, it triggers a “401 unauthorized access” error. The URL redirects from https:// to http:// which triggers this error.

Adjusting the Magento Configuration using the steps below can fix this error.

• • Login to Magento Admin and Navigate to Configuration option in Store.

• • While in the Configurations page, click on the Web section and then on  Base URLs (Secure) option.

• • Once in the Base URLs (Secure) option, search for the Use Secure URLs on Storefront and Use Secure URLs in Admin options. 

• • Uncheck the Use system value checkbox next to them.

• • Next update the following settings to the one given in the image.

Finally, do not forget to Flush Magento Cache and Flush Cache Storage from Magento Admin. The Web Setup Wizard will be accessible now without any error message.

[Need help to fix Magento 401 Unauthorised Access error? We are available 24×7]

Magento version incompatibilities

At times, there can be incompatibilities with the Magento version installed. As a result, it can trigger the error “401 Unauthorised Access”.

For instance, recently we came across such an issue where the user was using a pretty old Magento version. A reinstallation to a much latest stable version fixed the issue here.

Alternate reasons

Apart from the reasons above, some conventional reasons can trigger the  Magento 401 unauthorized access error.

For example, at times it may be a simple browser incompatibility. If you are receiving the error on Google Chrome, simply try switching to the Firefox browser.

Surprisingly clearing the browser cache and cookies can also help in resolving the error message at times.

Therefore it is not a bad idea to use the common fixes that we try for any issue, like the ones mentioned above in this case as well.

Conclusion

In short, the Magento 401 Unauthorised Access error is triggered due to various reasons. Today we discussed some of the common reasons for this error and how our Support Engineers fix them.