ftp update core/plugin issues 'could not remove the old plugin'.

  • Hi,

    I have wordpress on a few servers and works ok. But this one server has quite strict security.

    I couldn’t update the core files, it kept saying, couldn’t ‘create folder’ without telling where the folder was. I ended up installing 4.0.1 via ftp and the latest database now works.

    So I continue to try and update some of the plugins, none of them are success, with the following result:

    **
    Update Plugin
    Downloading update from https://downloads.www.ads-software.com/plugin/xxx.zip…
    Unpacking the update…
    Installing the latest version…
    Removing the old version of the plugin…
    Could not remove the old plugin.
    Plugin update failed.
    Return to Plugins page
    **

    I have via my ws_ftp chmod all the necessary folders and still doesn’t work. I tried a few other fixes as suggested on these forums, such as
    define('FS_METHOD','direct');

    and also

    if(is_admin()) {
        add_filter('filesystem_method', create_function('$a', 'return "direct";' ));
        define( 'FS_CHMOD_DIR', 0751 );
}

    also this post here

    none of them work.

    what does happen is the files are installed into the update as a .tmp file but they cannot be moved across to the final plugin folder.

    I tested with akismet and my server couldn’t create the new folders aki uses. So I made the folders myself and then the update worked, but stopped at finalising the install. So I uplaoded via ftp and then changed the version from 3.0.4 to 2.0.4 and tested again. Again the auto update didn’t finalise and deleted all the files in akismet folder (but not lower). I had to direct ftp again.

    I asked my server hosts and they say the error is from within wordpress, not the linux system’s ftp failure so, it’s down to here to try and resolve it.

    Any ideas?
    Andy

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)

  • Hi :),

    It appears the issue with the plugins folder or the folder of the plugin you are trying to update.

    Make sure the folders have permissions 755 and files should have permissions 644. Also check with your host for the ownership of the files.

    If still didn’t work, ask host to repair all the file/folder permissions.

    Thread Starter yesmaybe

    (@yesmaybe)

    Hi Dan,

    Thanks for the reply. I also had the same/similar issue when trying to update the core, so it’s not singled out to the plugins folder.

    I have checked again and all folders are 755 and files 644. I made them all 777 as a test, and still the same wall was hit.

    I will check again with the server host.

    Any more ideas? What about the use of a phpini file, what can that do to help?

    Andy

    Thread Starter yesmaybe

    (@yesmaybe)

    I have added a completely new wordpress install named ‘wpress’ with a new db too, all new files. Looking via ws_ftp each folder is chmod 755 and each file is chmod 644. To be sure I also looked through the sites file manager, all permission are 0755 (rwx r-x r-x)

    I uploaded an older plugin, then tried through wp plugin manager to update the plugin, it stuck on “Could not create directory.”

    The web host has shown me the php.ini file. It is 1660 lines of code. What should I be looking at or changing in there, to test again?

    Andy

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)
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