Title: Theme search fails
Last modified: August 19, 2016

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# Theme search fails

 *  Resolved [radly](https://wordpress.org/support/users/radly/)
 * (@radly)
 * [15 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/theme-search-fails/)
 * I’ve just installed WP 3.0.1 and am in the “getting to know you” stage, with 
   a copy of the Apress book “Beginning WordPress 3” at my elbow. I want to explore
   some different themes, so I click on the “Change Theme” button to get to the “
   Install Themes” tab. I then click the “Find Themes” button to search for some
   themes. I get a page that says “An Unexpected HTTP Error occured during the API
   request.” along with a link encouraging me to “Try again”, which I do to no avail.
   The tail end of the URL is “wp-admin/theme-install.php?tab=search”.
 * This is my first WordPress experience, so I’m not sure if I’ve tried this too
   early; perhaps I need to get something else done first?

Viewing 6 replies - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)

 *  Thread Starter [radly](https://wordpress.org/support/users/radly/)
 * (@radly)
 * [15 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/theme-search-fails/#post-1766025)
 * And I get similar misbehavior on the Plugins->Add New screen, “Search Plugins”
   button. Coincidence?
 *  [esmi](https://wordpress.org/support/users/esmi/)
 * (@esmi)
 * [15 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/theme-search-fails/#post-1766153)
 * Try contacting your hosts. Their server configuration may be blocking your attempts
   to access the Themes & Plugins Directory.
 *  Thread Starter [radly](https://wordpress.org/support/users/radly/)
 * (@radly)
 * [15 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/theme-search-fails/#post-1766179)
 * That sounded reasonable, so I made wp-content permissions recursively 777. But,
   alas, that had no effect. My server error logs don’t show any failures, either.
 *  [esmi](https://wordpress.org/support/users/esmi/)
 * (@esmi)
 * [15 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/theme-search-fails/#post-1766195)
 * It’s got nothing to do with file & folder [permissions. Try contacting your hosts.
   They may have disabled access to external sites via PHP.
 *  Thread Starter [radly](https://wordpress.org/support/users/radly/)
 * (@radly)
 * [15 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/theme-search-fails/#post-1766214)
 * It would help me when I contact them if I knew what to ask about. “… access the
   Themes & Plugins Directory” sounded like “… permissions on wp-content/Themes &
   wp-content/Plugins”, but I guess that’s not what you meant. So what exactly is“
   Themes & Plugins Directory” and what kind of access is being attempted? If I 
   knew which PHP program was attempting it I could be a bit more specific. (I said
   I was new to WordPress, but I didn’t say I was new to PHP. 🙂 )
 *  Thread Starter [radly](https://wordpress.org/support/users/radly/)
 * (@radly)
 * [15 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/theme-search-fails/#post-1766218)
 * Well, that was interesting. I decided to scratch the whole thing and start over.
   For reasons that I don’t quite fathom, this time (unlike the first time) I had
   to set the permissions on the top level folder to 777, and that seems to have
   made an abundance of difference. Problem solved. Thanks for the response.

Viewing 6 replies - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)

The topic ‘Theme search fails’ is closed to new replies.

 * In: [Fixing WordPress](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/how-to-and-troubleshooting/)
 * 6 replies
 * 2 participants
 * Last reply from: [radly](https://wordpress.org/support/users/radly/)
 * Last activity: [15 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/theme-search-fails/#post-1766218)
 * Status: resolved

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