Can’t update or delete TwentyTwenty

I’m seeing updates have now actually failed on 14 of my sites.

Hey @mgc,

How is it that you installed the theme? Just get it by it being added with WP during the 5.3 update?

Yes, every time WordPress is updated, every default theme is (re)installed, so now we have 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, and 2015 on every site. We used to delete them (as they suggest for security), but we operate about 25 sites and don’t have time for that any more.

Any change if you chmod the directory to 755? https://www.ads-software.com/support/article/changing-file-permissions/

Hi James,

It won’t let me change the file permissions (it restores them). I can delete the folder and it’s instantly restored. When, as an experiment on one site, I renamed the folder, a new one appeared immediately, like some persistent virus. Now I’m stuck with two TwentyTwenty folders and themes. It’s actually quite frustrating and scary to see this happen. I understand that users should have a default theme for safety reasons, but this seems almost draconian.

So, a couple things:

1. WordPress never forces you to re-install a default theme.

2. WordPress never forces file permissions.

It sounds like something is very wrong with the server, perhaps your changes aren’t being saved at all, that rather than the file permissions reverting and the theme re-installing, nothing you’re doing is actually happening.

Hi James,

Thanks for that. Very interesting. To date, every time we’ve taken the time to delete unused default themes, they’re all back when the next WordPress comes along. You’re saying that this is a server (in this case GoDaddy) issue?

WP will usually re-add the default themes back on update however if you already performed the update then it shouldn’t keep restoring them.

I’m not sure what is going on with your site but seems as though something other than WP is the thing that is restoring those files and reverting any permission changes. Do you have any other plugins installed that could be doing it? Perhaps a security plugin of some sort?

Hi William,

This is the first time this has happened and it’s across at least 14 sites. No new plugins have been installed, so I’m wondering if it’s server-related, as James had suggested. Thank you for your input!

Hi mgc,
I’m getting the same issue with GoDaddy hosted sites. In FTP it is showing a 0 root as the owner/group. I’m looking for a way to change the permission in order to delete the twenty-twenty theme. All the default themes have reappeared on all sites after WP update as well.

Hi crownpressadmin and everyone on this thread,

I just got off the phone with GoDaddy. This has happened to us before. Apparently, when there’s a WordPress update on their servers, the file permissions are often updated (I have no idea why), and in this case, I had to list all the sites affected for them to reset the file permissions, one at a time. They told me it can take about a half hour to take effect, but many of my sites now allow the theme updates to happen.

This has taken a lot of our time and some of yours. Thank you all for your help and for suggesting that it’s (correctly) a server-related issue.

Kind regards,
Michael

Weird, WP never touches file permissions, so it must be something GoDaddy is doing with their updater.

I’m seeing the exact same issue with my GoDaddy hosted site (Managed WordPress). Inability to update Twenty Twenty, inability to delete Twenty Twenty. And then the update prompt resets. (Plus there’s the reappearance of earlier-deleted default themes.) So this does not appear to be an isolated instance on GoDaddy hosted WordPress sites.

As I mentioned previously, there’s something that happens periodically when GoDaddy updates WordPress. Thankfully, now, they’ve introduced a user tool in the Managed WordPress to let you reset the permissions yourself, or else you can call support to have them reset the permissions for you. That’s all it took and now everything is working again. I hope this helps.

Thank you all, once again, for helping me arrive at a solution!

So glad for this thread since this is happening with a client on Godaddy. The support person I spoke with hadn’t a clue. Please tell me the proper file permission. Thank you!