WordPress download file instead of opening site

I encountered this problem with a WordPress site and this is how I fixed it.

1. I checked my file manager to see how many .htaccess files I had uploaded to the root folder on my server.
   1. If I had multiple I would have deleted one and made sure the other had all the essential commands in it.
2. I only had one, so I checked whether it was referencing a PHP version that my server may not be running.
   1. My .htaccess file reference PHP 70 and I was pretty certain this wasn’t what my server was running.
   2. I commented out the line containing the PHP reference and voila I was back in business.

#AddHandler application/x-httpd-php70 .php

Brief Breakdown Why WordPress Tried To Download File Instead of Load Site

• The problem could be caused by using invalid/incorrect php/php.ini handler .htaccess code in the root .htaccess file.
  • This was my problem.
• There could have been a php/php.ini handler code in the wp-admin .htaccess file when the wp-admin .htaccess file should not have any php/php.ini handler code in it.  
  • The php/php.ini handler .htaccess code should only be in the root .htaccess file. If that was the case I would have tried deleting the wp-admin .htaccess file and see if that solved the problem.
• There could be a .htaccess file higher up in the hosting account folder structure that has invalid php/php.ini handler .htaccess code in it.
  • That is what I originally checked for in step 1.
• Another problem could be that the hosting provider was upgraded and not configured correctly.
  • I think this shouldn’t be your first conclusion.

There are a couple other reasons why you may have run into this problem, but I think this is a good start to troubleshooting the problem.

Good luck.