Having an issue where Apache is requesting authentication, and looking for an .htpasswd file, based on instructions from an .htaccess file that's no longer in DocumentRoot. Background:

In my DocumentRoot, I'd previously copied an .htaccess and .htpasswd file from another machine (along with all of the other website files).

.htaccess contents:

AuthType Basic
AuthName "Password is required"
AuthUserFile /some/directory/that/was/on/the/other/server/not/this/one/.htpasswd
Require valid-user

Here's the catch: I moved .htaccess and .htpasswd out of DocumentRoot and even renamed the files. There is no longer an .htaccess file in DocumentRoot at all.

But, when I try to access localhost from a browser, I am prompted to enter the login and password.

When I enter the login and password (from the old, not-in-DocumentRoot .hpasswd file), I get a 500 Internal Server error and the log shows:

[error] [client 127.0.0.1] (2)No such file or directory: Could not open password file: /some/directory/that/was/on/the/other/server/not/this/one/.htpasswd

This has been quite a puzzle, because there's no longer a .htaccess or .htpasswd file anywhere in DocumentRoot !!

Have tried several apache restarts and also tried using a blank .htaccess file in the DocumentRoot. Even grepped the entire machine for references to AuthType Basic to see if I missed anything.

httpd.conf looks normal enough...I can post that if needed, but this question seems long enough as it is :)

Thanks for any assistance you can provide