Plesk Password Protection Q

[bitstream]

On my Wordpress website; sometimes when I turn off the Plesk "Password Protection" feature, the site goes down with a "500 Internal Server Error".  The only way I have found to recover is to rebuild the web site.  The error log says "AH01620: Could not open password file: /home/system/imggallery.helioho.st/pd/d..httpdocs"

so it appears the "Password Protection" is not completely being turned off - the password file is being removed, but Apache still wants to use a password for the entire site.
Is there a proper way to resolve this?
 

[bitstream]

Added note:  This is on the Morty2 server.

[MoneyBroz]

Try waiting up to 2 hours after changing the setting, sometimes settings like this require an Apache restart to apply.

[wolstech]

Password protection does require an Apache restart to turn on or off. The error is because turning it off deletes the password file, but until Apache restarts it’s still looking for the file that Plesk deleted.

Just waiting 2 hours after turning it off should clear the error. You may need to clear your cache after Apache restarts.

Also, when you turn it on, it can take up to 2 hours before it requires a password.