Error when upgrading to 3.9 – inconsistent file permissions.: wp-admin/includes

File permissions can be tricky. I suggest contacting your web host to see if they are willing to help you. You can include this as a reference: https://codex.www.ads-software.com/Changing_File_Permissions

I was running into this error.

Update WordPress

Downloading update from https://downloads.www.ads-software.com/release/wordpress-3.9.zip…

Unpacking the update…

The update cannot be installed because we will be unable to copy some files. This is usually due to inconsistent file permissions.: wp-admin/includes/update-core.php

Installation Failed

On my web server, i noticed permissions in my web folder were off (some with owner root, some with wrong access permissions)

Run the following 2 commands in your wordpress directory:
find -type d -print0 |xargs -0 chmod 755
find -type f -print0 |xargs -0 chmod 644

755 and 644 are default permissions for directory and files, change those to what they should be if yours differ.

This does not fix the problem.

Would be better if code provided a more descriptive error message.

I’ve tried all manner of incantations to fix this. No joy.

Reset all file + directory permissions. Same problem.

Would be great if code actually dumped the exact error produced, rather than saying…

“This is usually due to inconsistent file permissions” which in this case is incorrect.

Hum… Even uglier… the exact same error message is returned two different places in wp-admin/includes/update-core.php so there’s no way to tell where the error gets thrown.

Modifying this file to add debug logic doesn’t work either, because the file gets over written as part of the upgrade process.

David, perhaps try deleting the WP files (ONLY the WP files, leave /wp-content/ and wp-config.php as is) and then reinstalling manually. And always make sure to grab a backup before attempting upgrades and file updates like we’re talking about here.

Thought I’d post what I did to fix this.

Similar to the https://codex.www.ads-software.com/Updating_WordPress directions.

Since I have command line access + can look at debug.log + recover if any plugins go south + this site has many plugins, I skipped the disable plugins step.

What I did was simple.

1) cd to wordpress directory

2) unzip ~/wordpress-3.9.zip (answer ‘A’ to over write all files)

3) navigated to https://$domain/wp-admin/upgrade.php to update database

Checked debug.log + disabled one misbehaving plugin.

Site’s upgraded now + seems to be working well.

Never could figure out what one-button-upgrade problem was, since file/dir ownership + permissions were all correct.

Checked debug.log + disabled one misbehaving plugin.

What was the misbehaved plugin??

I get this message when I try to upgrade. I am not a techie so could Wordpess advise how I can get the one button upgrade to work as I don’t know how to make coding change. Is there something in the Dashboard of my blog that I can adjust which will allow it to work? Someone mentioned misbehaving plugins in the forum? Can www.ads-software.com fix this somehow so that an upgrade doesn’t involve hassle or potential for messing up blog/websites for users if upgrade is done wrong manually?

Here is message I get when upgrade fails:
Downloading update from https://downloads.www.ads-software.com/release/wordpress-3.9.zip…

Unpacking the update…

The update cannot be installed because we will be unable to copy some files. This is usually due to inconsistent file permissions.: wp-admin/includes/update-core.php

Installation Failed

If I were you I’d update WP manually, and would change the permissions via FTP as needed.

Were you successful with the manual update?

I have the same problem. ie update not installed die to inconsistent file permissions: wp-admin/includes/update-core.php
If I update manually, as Alpatrose recommends, how do I change permissions via FTP please?

After putting in some better error output into the running scripts & functions: update-core.php and class-wp-upgrader.php I tracked it down to a permissions issue w/the following directories and files:
* wp-admin
* wp-includes
* wp-login.php
* readme.html

By default, we typically have our wp-includes directory writeable and our other directories locked down. To successfully run this upgrade, you must first make the previous directories & files writeable by apache user and then lock it down after you upgrade.

As for changing permissions via FTP – this looks like a decent step-by-step: https://www.networksolutions.com/support/how-to-change-file-or-directory-permissions-via-ftp/

Got the same message trying to upload 4.0

The update cannot be installed because we will be unable to copy some files. This is usually due to inconsistent file permissions.: wp-admin/includes/update-core.php

Installation Failed

The solutions seem too complicated for someone who does not do a lot of coding…any easier solutions out there?