Update Failed: unable to copy

If you know how to check the permissions of the files, they are in the folder wp-content/plugins/wordfence/ — they should be writable by the user that the web server is running as, which should usually be the same as the WordPress core files. (Make sure to check the permissions of the folder itself, too.)

If you’re not sure how to check or change permissions, your host could help with that.

It could also be from running out of disk space. Usually you can check this in your site’s control panel.

Thank you for your reply! I do know how to check the file permissions. all of the WordPress Folders and the WordFence Folder have permission 0755 and all of the files have permission 0644.

I believe these are the correct codes so that is not the problem? Plenty of unused disc space at the host.

WordFence has been working fine. It’s just this latest update that won’t install.

Other ideas?

I have the same problem as well, and have checked the same things as markf1. This is happening on my own website as well as one of my clients’ websites.

Tried three times to update and get the same message. File permissions are set correctly and no sign that I am out of space.

Carol

It might be the permissions or a lock on one file — I just had another request from someone else who had this file listed in the error message:
wp-content/plugins/wordfence/tmp/configCache.php

You could check the permissions on that file, to see if that is the one causing it.

Alternately, in your Wordfence Options, you could turn on “Disable config caching” and save the options — if the file above still exists after that, you can remove it, and then try installing the update.

Let me know if it still doesn’t help — we had no trouble on any of our test servers, so there may be something unusual to track down. It may also be possible that your host limits disk space in a different way than usual — if you have a quota or disk space page in your site’s control panel, it might be different from what you see elsewhere.

Hi and thanks again for your help!

I tried updating WF again and got a new error message:
>>An error occurred while updating Wordfence Security: The update cannot be installed because we will be unable to copy some files. This is usually due to inconsistent file permissions. tmp/configCache.php<<

I checked the configCache.php and it had permission 0644

I checked/turned on “Disable config caching.” Then I deleted configCache.php from the tmp directory (per your instructions above). Then I ran the update and….. IT WORKED!

I will uncheck “Disable config caching” now that the update has been done.

Thanks for your help!

Yes, this has been the fix for my issues with the update. Thank you!

Great, thank you both for following up. It sounds like the file may have been in use by another visit during the update, or it was deleted and recreated during the update. I’ll see if we can check this out further on our end.

Thanks!

Today on two different WP sites where I have it installed, I am received this error message when I tried updating Wordfence even after I checked “Disable config caching” (and clicked Save):

An error occurred while updating Wordfence Security: The update cannot be installed because we will be unable to copy some files. This is usually due to inconsistent file permissions. tmp/configCache.php

I have used Wordfence since early 2015 and have never changed the permissions in any of its files. I don’t understand why it’s now becoming a problem to keep it updated. What should I do?

@jim Just use ftp to access the site, remove the wordfence folder in wp-content/plugins, login to your wordpress website admin area, and add the plugin there. The settings are in the database and should be preserved. This sometimes happens but it seems to not cause an issue again after the persona manually updates. If it does, let us know by opening your own thread so we can better track the issue.

FYI to the WordFence people.

this same thing happened again to me today with the new WF update. Followed the same procedure as above and it worked. problem resolved.

updated WF on another site I admin and did not have the error/trouble.

thank you for your excellent product.

None of the suggestions above solved my issue with updating due to Inconsistent File permissions .

What I eventually have done is:

Save the settings within Wordfence to transfer to another site (at the bottom of the Options page)

Disable and then delete Wordfence

Reinstall Wordfence from the Extend Directory

Import settings as instructed.

Problem solved, updated to the latest version, Wordfence installed the files (Including configCache.php) – with the same permissions as had been set originally.

@markf1: Thanks for the input, and for confirming that the process helped.

@ibusinesslogic: Thank you also for the details. This is the first I’ve heard of the process not working, but I’m entering a ticket for our dev team to check this out and see if we can prevent this in a future version.

-Matt R

Hi to the Wordfence people. Another FYI

Same thing happened with latest version update. Unable to update, with one site but not others that I admin. Went thru the process above and after doing so I was able to update Wordfence on the reluctant site.

@markf1: Thanks for the update — if you know any differences about the site where it didn’t work let us know, especially if it’s on a different type of server / hosting plan, or if it is at a different hosting company.

We’re looking into preventing the issue, but haven’t reproduced the problem on any of our test servers, so it is likely dependent on the host’s configuration.

It’s probably best to keep config caching disabled on that site for now, since it seems to happen consistently.

-Matt R

Hi Matt,
The site is hosted at the same hosting company and with the same hosting package as several other sites I built/admin. The other sites don’t seem to have the trouble.

I’m bringing this to your attention to try to provide helpful feedback. This is in no way a complaint or request for support. WordFence rocks and thank you for providing such a well crafted product.