Private files won't be saved anymore in their intended location? (D7) I've got a D7 installation for some time now, with a content type that has a "private file" field.

It was working just fine up until now.

My files usually got uploaded like:
http://....com/system/files/curso/file.txt
And they get saved inside: .../files/private/Private - accessible only to group members/[nodeid]/file.txt

Now I've created a new node with an uploaded private file: demo.txt

When its downloaded it gets this path:
http://....com/system/files/curso/demo_1.txt

But I get "Not Found" when I click it because it gets saved in other location (?): .../files/private/curso/demo_1.txt

Notes


The _0, _1 etc are automatically added to the files when they are saved into the node.
I've tried accessing the file from its real location (.../files/private/curso/demo_1.txt) with no luck.
The "files" folder is directely inside public_html because the original setting was that way (the site comes from a D4.7, D5 and then  a D6 installation).
It worked just fine with other files up until now. I've not done anything special (like installing new modules), except creating a few new node types and rebuilding the permissions.


What could I do? (BTW, I've read this information, and sadly it didn't helped).

Update - Error Logs:

[Mon Mar 02 12:37:40 2015] [error] [client 181.28.74.188] client denied by server configuration: /home/sitio/public_html/files/private/curso/demo_1.txt
(I've found more info about this here)
You spoted your problem in your apache log file : Apache is forbiding access.  

You have 2 options here :

If you want apache to allow access to these files then add this to apache conf file : 

&lt;Directory /home/sitio/public_html/files/private/curso&gt;
  AllowOverride None
  Order Allow,Deny
  Allow From All 
&lt;/Directory&gt;


then restart apache and I guess you should be ok to access your file.

But if you want these files to be private then you want to restrict access rather than open it, so  

Alternatively,  

you let apache restrict access to these files, and you set drupal serve these files via alternative drupal-generated links. Check the documentation for setting up access to private files here, look for the section on "Accessing Private Files".

If you've got no .htaccess file for the folder as you said then create one with :

Deny from all
Options None
Options +FollowSymLinks