Is it normal for the .htaccess file name to be changed to .htaccess.old

I noticed that my site backup from 3 months ago had a regular .htaccess file. When I checked today, the file name has been changed the .htaccess.old and I don't really want to open it. I can't even open it because of the .old extension. I've never had a file name changed before but this is a shared hosting account with GoDaddy. Is it unusual for a shared hosting account to have the .htaccess changed to .htaccess.old or should I suspect foul play? I've received messages from time to time from the host saying that they'd be doing maintenance. Is it possible that it could have happened during one of their maintenance sessions?

Actually, I recently changed my PHP version to 7.4, then back to 7.3. I'm reading that .htaccess is no longer used in PHP 7.4 so it's possible that could have changed the name as well.

RideTheWave wrote: ↑

Thu Apr 29, 2021 10:12 am

Is it possible that it could have happened during one of their maintenance sessions?

Yep was most likely them but you can always ask them.

RideTheWave wrote: ↑

Thu Apr 29, 2021 10:14 am

Actually, I recently changed my PHP version to 7.4, then back to 7.3. I'm reading that .htaccess is no longer used in PHP 7.4 so it's possible that could have changed the name as well.

.htaccess is Apache file, not PHP so it doesn't really matter if newer PHP versions support them or not. File itself is still useful.