Help with WordPress permissions on Ubuntu

I just installed WordPress on a Ubuntu server and its running great! Unfortunately, it appears that my permissions are not setup correctly as I am having issues with plugins working properly.

I have followed the guide here and it recommends I make the permissions a little less restrictive in order to update the WordPress install. It suggests I run the command:

sudo chown -R www-data /var/www/html

If I do that, everything works as it should but now I can’t browse my files through FTP as I am not longer the owner. If I run

sudo chown -R MYUSERNAME /var/www/html

then I can browser the files but now my plugins don’t work right (can’t install or delete them).

My permissions were set based on the “Hardening Guide” by WordPress:

folders
find /path/to/your/wordpress/install/ -type d -exec chmod 750 {} \;
and files
find /path/to/your/wordpress/install/ -type f -exec chmod 640 {} \;

How can I set permissions in order for everything to work while keeping a secure install?

• This topic was modified 6 years, 2 months ago by Steven Stern (sterndata).