What is in the wp-content/ folder?

  • I have a WP site on my hosting plan.

    When I first set up the site, I unzipped the WP install on my local drive.
    Made a few edits on the local files,
    and then FTP uploaded the wordpress/ folder to the host.

    Made 125 blog entries over the years.
    My local wordpress/wp-content is empty

    The hosted wordpress/wp-content has a folder called uploads/
    Hosted: wordpress/wp-content/uploads/YYYY/MM/(empty)

    What is/was supposed to be in these folders?

Viewing 7 replies - 1 through 7 (of 7 total)
  • Moderator Jose Castaneda

    (@jcastaneda)

    THEME COFFEE MONKEY

    Howdy!

    In a standard installation it would be two additional folders. The themes and plugins.

    Hi @mathwriter, The wp-content folder is an important part of a WordPress installation.

    What is/was supposed to be in these folders?
    This folder “wp-content” includes plugins, themes, uploads, and debug.logs and other folders if they are created by any plugins or themes.

    The Plugins folder has all the plugins that you can manage from your dashboard > plugins.

    The Themes folder has all the themes that you can manage from your dashboard > appearance > themes.

    The Uploads folder has all the media items that you upload in your posts/pages or any other content using the media uploader. The media items are saved according to the date.

    Hope this solves your confusion ??

    Thread Starter mathwriter

    (@mathwriter)

    Why are all my uploads folders empty?
    Is my FTP client broken?
    There are 10 years of folders, 2011/ 2012/ 2013/ etc
    Yet all are empty

    Hi @mathwriter, If you are going to migrate your WordPress setup from your localhost to a live server, then try these setups below as this has less chance of error.

    1> Setup new WordPress in your live server directly using host Cpanel or by contacting the hosts directly.

    2> Install All in one wp migration plugin in your both setups ( localhost and live server )

    3> Export your data from localhost and import that data file in your live server.

    Sometimes, when we upload files using FTP, some files and folders are skipped during the upload.

    Thread Starter mathwriter

    (@mathwriter)

    Thanks for your time. Here is the context.
    I am running WP 3.2.1 on PHP 7.2
    I am first trying to manually migrate to WP 3.7
    (After that works, then auto-update to WP 5.7 and PHP 7.4)

    I am using these directions
    https://www.ads-software.com/support/article/upgrading-wordpress-extended-instructions/#upgrading-across-multiple-versions

    I have everything backed up
    I have unzipped the WP 3.7 install on my local drive.

    Now I am stuck trying to figure out what to keep and delete,
    based on step 7 of the directions.
    It says to NOT delete wp-content/ on my host, yet they are all empty folders.

    • This reply was modified 3 years, 10 months ago by mathwriter.

    @mathwriter, You can keep these folders: Themes, Plugins, and Uploads folders. They are important for your WordPress setup.

    If nothing works, you can try these methods, if applicable on your end:

    1> Upload WordPress 3.7 in your live server and extract it there.

    2> If successfully extracted in your live server, you will see the wp-content folder with Themes Folder, Plugins Folder and index.php

    3> Upload your media items from Upload Folder
    then rest you can follow the steps provided by WordPress.

    Also if the issue still exists, try fixing it first in your localhost with the latest version of WordPress.

    Thread Starter mathwriter

    (@mathwriter)

    What media items? My uploads/ folder is filled with empty folders. Is this is viewnig access issue? Or are they empty? I have never uploaded anything. Where is upload feature? When making a post?

Viewing 7 replies - 1 through 7 (of 7 total)
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