3.0 Plugin Upgrade Bug? Could Not Create Directory

Tried it. No go. I am beginning to think I should give up, maybe roll back to the 2.9 version since I cant get past this issue.

I am running a self installed wordpress on an IIS server. Today i started to see this problem.
The error appears after the old content of the folder is erased so you will have to remember the name of the addon to reinstall it.

I have 256Mb limit here and the folders are permitted fine. The problem must be in the update engine wordpress uses. Just my 2 cents

Deleting the old folder (its empty by the way) and reinstalling does the trick. I am not sure everybody are in such easy place to do that or they do know how. Also downloading the addon and upload and install generates this problem again sometimes.
This should be fixed asap. Till then i am stopping auto updating (i recommend that) and just use the message of new updates to know what to update manually. At least that way i had no problems

Hi guys, i’ve been having trouble with this for a while and have given up! I get the same error when trying to install the backup program.

I do not understand how to change the permissions to 777. I use ClassicFTP on a MAC OSX and i have searched and searched on the FTP client to find where it gives you the option to do this.

I even emailed the software company that makes ClassicFTP to ask them because I couldn’t find anything on any forums about it, everyone just acts like its so obvious! They stated that I have to change the permission on my actual hard-drive, not through the FTP client. But I don’t know where any of the WP folders are located on my computer… I thought they were created through the FTP client and not on my hard-drive.

Can someone PLEASE help me, I’m pulling my hair out!! Baby steps please!

I found a way to upgrade the WordPress Plugins without any errors. I use WordPress 3.01.

My webhost is Liquidweb and this is how we solved the WordPress upgrade problem:

Step 1: Let your webhost switch your FTP Server from Pure-FTP(or similar FTP) to ProFTP. For some reason WordPress doesn’t agree with the FTP server that cPanel uses by default.

Step 2: CHMOD 777 these folders in your wp-content folder: Gallery, Plugins (and all plugins in your Plugins folder), themes, upgrade, uploads.

Step 3: Delete the upgrade folder, make a new upgrade folder and CHMOD it to 777.

Step 4: CHMOD wp-content folder to 755 or 750, depending on your webhost.

At least at Liquidweb, the upgrades of the plugins are real fast and without any errors now.

-Riggie

This is going to make some of you nuts (it did me). None of these solutions worked for me. I spent all day on this and it turns out it happened because of a bonehead mistake.

Turns out that if you forget to deactiveate all plugins before an upgrade, this problem is the result. downgraded my wp installation to 2.9. Deactivated all plugins then upgraded back to 3.0.1. Now all is working fine!

Let me know if this works for you. It took me 8 hours to figure it out. Thanks to the awesome guys at bluehost who really went above and beyond in helping me!

Yes, you have to de-activate plugins, but this simple step did not work for most of us.

If you still have problems after to de-activating your plugins, check my steps above…

I deactivated all of my plug-ins, installed the upgrades, and then activated them again. It worked like a charm. I am so glad I found this string!

Same for me, I couldn’t upgrade nothing but after I had delete upgrade folder in wp-content, recreated a new one and I switch the folder permissions to 777.
No problem, it worked very fine!

Thank you.

If you simply set permissions without knowing if you’re on a DSO or suPHP machines, you could be in a world of pain. If you set 755 under SuPHP, the permission used is “7” and 777 under DSO the permission used is “7” so in the case of 755 on SuPHP verses 777 on DSO, it is exactly the same thing! If you want to set something to 777, you set it to 755 on SuPHP. If you actually set it to 777, you instead actually set it to 000 —- NO ACCESS — oops!

If you simply set permissions without knowing if you’re on a DSO or suPHP machines, you could be in a world of pain. If you set 755 under SuPHP, the permission used is “7” and 777 under DSO the permission used is “7” so in the case of 755 on SuPHP verses 777 on DSO, it is exactly the same thing! If you want to set something to 777, you set it to 755 on SuPHP. If you actually set it to 777, you instead actually set it to 000 —- NO ACCESS — oops! And this doesn’t solve the problem for everyone, especially those on suPHP machines like me.

I had the same issue, then i deleted “Upgrade” folder and recreated it wil CMOD 777 but now i get enew error message Could not copy file.: /public_html/wp-admin/css/theme-editor.dev.css

srj.cooldude — is it a DSO or suPHP machine?

Worked for me:
1. Login to your web host control panel:
https://www.mysite.com/cpanel (if you have cpanel)
FTP DIDN’T WORK
2. open the file manager
3. navigate to the wp-content folder
4. delete the upgrade folder
5. create a new folder called upgrade
6. change permissions to: chmod 777
7. go back to wordpress admin and upgrade plugins.

Ta da!

@notfarnow — if its a DSO server, it may help, if its an SuPHP server, it won’t help at all, in fact it will make it worse.

After searching for this upgrade problem, I applied the following:

– disabled all plugins
– deleted upgrade folder and changed permissions to 777
result : this error : Could not copy file.:/public_html/blog/wp-admin/css/theme-editor.dev.css

Then…
– all plugins still disabled
– deleted upgrade folder and changed permissions to 755
result : this error : Could not copy file.:/public_html/blog/wp-admin/css/theme-editor.dev.css
Installation Failed

Then…
– all plugins still disabled
– added this to wp-config.php as suggested in this thread : https://www.ads-software.com/support/topic/installer-cannot-create-upgrade-directory?replies=15

putenv(‘TMPDIR=’ . ini_get(‘upload_tmp_dir’));
define(‘FS_CHMOD_DIR’, (0755 & ~ umask()));
define(‘FS_CHMOD_FILE’, (0644 & ~ umask()));

result again : this error : Could not copy file.:/public_html/blog/wp-admin/css/theme-editor.dev.css
Installation Failed

Then…
– all plugins still disabled
– changed permissions on “wp-admin/css/theme-editor.dev.css” to 755
result this time : this error : Could not create directory.: /public_html
Installation Failed

Then…
– all plugins still disabled
– changed permissions on my “public.html” to 755 (…they are originally 750)
result this time : this error : Could not create directory.: /public_html
Installation Failed

Then…
– all plugins still disabled
– changed permissions on my “public.html” to 777
result this time : this error : Could not create directory.: /public_html
Installation Failed

So my question is : why is the WordPress upgrade trying to create a “/public_html” file when one already exists?

I don’t think this is a problem with anyones server, but a problem with the upgrade mechanism in WordPress 3+, as I have never had this particular problem with WordPress upgrades prior to #3.

Comments? Solutions?