Download failed.: error setting certificate verify locations: CAfile: /usr/local

That’s an issue with Yahoo hosting and their root SSL certificates. You need to ask them to fix it so you can upgrade.

I don’t think its a problem with Yahoo hosting, follow the steps they’ve explained in their help article below to fix the issue:

https://help.yahoo.com/kb/yahoo-web-hosting/SLN25243.html

And following those instructions will erase your current site, as they do not warn you to not overwrite wp-content.

To do a correct manual upgrade, see https://codex.www.ads-software.com/Upgrading_WordPress#Manual_Update

I think you’ve not looked at that WordPress article completely, here is what it says:

NOTE – you should replace all the old WordPress files with the new ones in the wp-includes and wp-admin directories and sub-directories, and in the root directory (such as index.php, wp-login.php and so on). Don’t worry – your wp-config.php will be safe.

So when you download the zip file and unzip it, there is no ‘wp-config.php’ file, there is just a wp-config-sample.php page. More over when you copy the content of unzipped folder and overwrite using FTP, you are just updating the old files in your existing folder with the new files you’ve downloaded from WordPress.

The ONLY thing you should be concerned about is REPLACING entire existing wp-content folder with new one you’ve downloaded, obviously you should never do that as your existing wp-content folder holds your website themes, plugins and other data.

@imuser: you didn’t read what I wrote. I am not referring to the WordPress article I linked; I am referring to the Yahoo article you linked.

The Yahoo article is incorrect; it says to replace the entire WordPress directory:

Upload the contents of the unzipped folder to the WordPress folder on your Yahoo Web Hosting account. (For example, if your blog is at https://www.domain.com/myblog, upload the contents of the unzipped folder to the “myblog” folder using an FTP tool, like FileZilla.)

That will overwrite the wp-content folder of the current site.

Nope that won’t, I’ve done that on several of my clients account on Yahoo, it works well.

But as a precautionary measure, its always good to take back up of all the WP files and DB so if somethings breaks, we can restore it back the way it was.

Thanks for the advice. I followed none of it actually – no time. Tonight I went back into my Yahoo! Small Business hosting account and clicked “Automatic Update to 4.0” and BAM! It worked with no error message. I noticed when I went back to the Dashboard that WordPress News on the site had an error message article – I suspect WordPress may have made a change – or Yahoo! did – and the auto-upgrade button that had always worked like a charm for years worked again quickly and accurately.

Thanks for the informative help attempts above!

Thoughts?

Jon E. Kreski
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@jkreski: See https://www.ads-software.com/support/topic/wont-download-40?replies=2 for a possible explanation.