Some files are not writable by WordPress: wp-load.php

I was receiving the exact same error message and contacted my host (Bluehost) via chat for support. They were able to fix the problem and the only thing I was able to get that they did was: “Updated the php limits for the website and replaced the core files of the website to set up the site.”

Honestly, I have no idea what this means and that’s why I reached out to my host. I hope this helps.
Michelle

Thanks for sharing. After I posted here, I did the same and contacted my host. They did something and the error is now gone. What I also did is deactivated and then activated again all of my plugins while the host was working on my problem. One way or another, the issue is no more.

I had the same issue too. I was luckily able to resolve it on my own after reading some posts on google.

My host is blueshost. Below is what I did:

1. Login to bluehost portal.
2. Click on My Sites -> Settings -> Advanced -> File Manager
3. Among the list of options in the left panel, click on public_html where you will find wp-load.php as one of the files.
4. Clicked on permissions and changed it to 0644.

Then, go back to wordpress and refresh. I could see that Site Health Status back to good.

Hope it helps !

Thanks for sharing. My host resolved the issue so everything now works fine.

Thank you @johnkalathil! That worked.

Thanks for sharing, @johnkalathil! The solution you share solved my problem.

Thank you @johnkalathil that just worked for me too, appreciate you posting this for everybody.

I’m having same problem. I have Hostgator. After a long wait for him to look through it, even longer listening to music waiting for him to check something, then the music stopped. Then silence for 3 minutes and the phone disconnected. I’m too mad to call back for now.

So John Kalathil, I did what you said. It didn’t help. Is there a different code for Hostgator do you know?

Thanks

Client’s host is BlueHost. The same error was showing in the Site Health Status. I logged into the cPanel and followed the process to change the Permissions as @johnkalathil provided above. I did this by hovering over the permissions that were showing in the far right column and changing them from what was showing 0444 to 0644. Went back to the website and the error was gone. (Thank you, John!)

@johnkalathil wow! Thank you so much for that. I have no idea what I’ve done but the error message has now cleared and according to the plugins, it would indeed appear that my site health has improved.
Many thanks!

@johnkalathil Brilliant! Thank you for sharing. It worked and took only 2 minutes. You are a star ??

@jts1965 for Hostgator in file Manager go to same wp-load.php select permissions and under the user column make sure you have read and write check that will change permission value to 644

Thanks for sharing your solutions.

thank you

Why was the issue arising in the first place? Was anyone ever able to determine why the error message was displaying as “critical” and why it’s shown? Why does this error message show in some sites and not others? If you have 10 sites hosted by the same hosting provider shouldn’t all sites show the same error?

I know it’s marked as “resolved,” but there’s no mention as to why it occurred as a critical error in the first place.