Treat particular folder as actual folder not as controller CodeIgniter - apache

Question

I want to make a particular folder to be treated as an actual one, not as a controller in codeigniter and also want to redirect my all domain.com requests to www.domain.com. I have the following htaccess code:
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond $1 !^(FOLDER_TO_BE_EXCLUDED)
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
# Redirect non-www to www:
#RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^www\. [NC]
#RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.%{HTTP_HOST}/$1 [R=301,L]
# Rewrite all other URLs to index.php/URL
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php?url=$1 [PT,L]
</IfModule>
<IfModule !mod_rewrite.c>
ErrorDocument 404 index.php
</IfModule>
If I uncomment the lines (Redirect non-www to www), all requests are treated as controller
so the folder (FOLDER_TO_BE_EXCLUDED) is also treated as controller. I want to access this folder as an actual one.
If I will not redirect non-www to www I cant access session variables on inner pages.
Hope you will understand.

Answer 1

RewriteCond only apply to the RewriteRule which follows: your rules (commented now) were incorrect.
Besides, IMO, the simplest way to define exceptions like this one, is to use a non-rewriting rule like: RewriteRule ^FOLDER_TO_BE_EXCLUDED/ - [L] (on "top" of rewrite rules)
RewriteEngine On
# Redirect non-www to www:
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^www\. [NC]
RewriteRule .* http://www.%{HTTP_HOST}/$0 [R=permanent,L]
RewriteRule ^FOLDER_TO_BE_EXCLUDED/ - [L]
# Rewrite all other URLs to index.php/URL
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule .* index.php?url=$0 [PT,L]

Answer 2

Try adding a RewriteCond to your last RewriteRule:
RewriteCond $1 !^(folder_name/)
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php?url=$1 [PT,L]
This should stop it redirecting www.yourdomain.com/folder_name to the index.php.
You can add more folders to the condition using the | character:
RewriteCond $1 !^(folder_name/|another_folder/)