Update error

>> This is usually due to inconsistent file permissions.: wp-admin/includes/update-core.php <<

Look at the permissions on that file. Are they the same as the others in that directory? If not, set them to be the same.

You can view permissions via FTP or via the file manager app of your hosting control panel.

• This reply was modified 4 years, 7 months ago by Steven Stern (sterndata).

How can I check and change the permissions? Where do I find the FTP?

FTP is a method of transferring files, for instance between your computer and the hosting space that contains your blog.

But to shorten things, when we say “via FTP”, we mean “using an FTP client”, a program that one uses to connect to one’s hosting space and view the files and/or perform operations on them.

These are programs such as FileZilla.

FTP Clients

Your web host can tell you how to connect to your hosting space, for this you would need your FTP username and FTP password, to feed them into your FTP client, and then it will look like the file explorer in your computer, but it will be the files in another machine, at your web host.

To change file permissions… Look, it’s becoming complicated.

It will depend on which program you use as an FTP client. But to keep it short, you make a right-click on the /wp-includes/ directory in your hosting space (it will be in the default folder containing your wordpress), to view the “properties” of that directory.

And you make sure it’s got the proper “rights”, summarized either with a figure, “0755”, that, it’s the ideal option, it’s simple.

Or with letters, R (for “can Read”), W (for “can Write”, aka edit files and not just view them) or X (for “eXecute”, as if to run a program). For three different groups of people, Owner (you, who is the admin), Group (you, but others too), and Others (the Lizard people). And then in this grid, everyone has R(ead) checked, only the Owner has W(rite) checked, and everybody has (e)X(ecute) checked.

AND: make sure you tick the little checkbox (there’s always one) to make the change you asked apply “recursively”, meaning: not just to the right-clicked directory itself, but to every one of the files and subdirectories inside the directory.

Please contact your host.

Super fast thing I must leave, sorry, I can’t update my post anymore, I made a big and silly mistake: DO NOT click to apply that change recursively. I was thinking of another situation when I was typing. Here, directories and files musn’t have the same level of permissions (644 on files, 755 on directories). So you have to make the change by hand, for only the files the error message you got before mentioned.

Honestly, you can do more harm than good by changing the permissions yourself. Please contact your web host to resolve this for you.