Hiding PDFs/ Hidden Download Not Working

[cmpisha]

I’m trying to secure a small handful of pdfs on my website.
I don’t want them to be found by search engines or the general public. I have them password protected

I used PHP dispatch to hide the url but right now, if I type in the direct url
mysite.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/supersecret.pdf

I’m able to view the pdf in my browser

My concern is if a search engine was indexing the site, the pdf would show up.

I purchased the Hidden Downloads Addon to try to prevent this, but I think I misunderstood the purpose of this addon:
1. My download button is completely broken when using the [sdm_hidden_download] short code (the page just reloads when clicking the download button, whether the password was correct or not. No redirection, no errors, no download popup, and I can’t find a error for this in the error log for the SDM Dowloand plugin. ) I’m not even sure where to begin troubleshooting this, but I also don’t know if this is plugin will fix the problem I have because
2. I can still navigate to the direct url

[admin]

This addon can download the file even if you put it outside the public_html directory. So if you put it above that folder and specify the path of the file (example: /home/your_account/downloads/my-file.pdf), the addone will be able to download it. Visitors cannot browser to that file because it is outside the “public_html” folder.

Alternatively, you can put a no-index in your “uploads” folder where you will be putting your files. That will prevent any search engines from indexing that file.

You can also put all your secret files in one particular folder and put a .htaccess file in that folder so outside world can’t access it. The plugin can download it from the server.

Regarding the shortcode not working, can I see the page where you have it so I can inspect it?

[Author]

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