If you used the built in installer the files will be owned by whoever uploaded the them– ie. the Apache server. That is normal. What isn’t normal is that you can’t edit them. Permissions should really be 775 and your user (login) should be in the same group as the ‘apache’ user. You may or may not have the ability to make those changes. On some shared hosting that I manage, I can’t. On our VPS, I can. You may need to ask your host.
Thread Starter
raymng
(@raymng)
Mine is 755, not 775. Is it abnormal?
Do you think I should try to change this or I should contact the host’s support?
Thanks.
Perhaps that was a typo? 755 is the standard permission on a folder.
Thread Starter
raymng
(@raymng)
If 755 is the standard permission for folders, but I am not the owner, then how can I upload my files into these folders?
Thanks.
Ask your hosts to look into the ownership of those folders.
Thread Starter
raymng
(@raymng)
But if I take the ownership, will it affect the “apache” or the other operations of the wordpress system??
Nope. It’s purely a fluke due to way your server is configured and how WordPress is installed.
Thread Starter
raymng
(@raymng)
I contacted the theme provider, they said the ownership depends if the theme was installed from wordpress dashboard or uploaded using ftp.
I installed the theme from dashboard, maybe I should ftp next time. Anyway I contacted the hosting support, hope they can solve my problem.
Hmm… I think that’s a cop out on their part. It shouldn’t matter how you upload a theme. The folder default ownerships are set by the server (usually when WP is installed) – not by WordPress
Thread Starter
raymng
(@raymng)
I got response from hosting:
“You will need to log in as root, as you suggest, and change the owner back to your domains user. You may also want to ensure the group is psacln. “
Actually I don’t know what is “psacln” and why I should change group to “psacln”…
After I changed owner back to my login, now I can FTP upload files.
But I can’t update files via wordpress dashboard, so I changed the group from “psacln” back to “apache”, still failed, finally change permission to 775, then succeed.
I still have two questions:
I wonder why the host ask me changing group to “psacln” ??
Also, does 775 expose any security issues?
Thanks.