Override 404 when navigating to single php file

Question

I uploaded a php file in the root directory of my Wordpress site that I need to be able to access directly through the browser.

When I do, it looks like Wordpress takes over, triggers a 404, and shows the error page.

It only occurs for php files that are one level down from root. I tried viewing a php file in root and it works. I tried with html and txt files in root and in "folder" and I can view them just fine. However when the php file is within "folder" and I try viewing, I get a 404.

Any ideas on what's going on? How can I prevent this from happening?

The structure is this

/root
.../folder
....../file-that-throws-404.php
.../wp-admin
.../wp-content
.
.
.

Answer 1

WordPress .htaccess should fix this. It checks wether the file exists before doing any redirects. Are you sure your installation is correct?

Answer 2

This was actually a symptom of incorrect permissions that I set on the folder and PHP files. Apologies for incorrectly diagnosing WP as the culprit. All is well now.

PHP files must be set to 644. Folders containing them must be set to 755.

This is the post that led me there: https://stackoverflow.com/a/34303324