Upload not writeable and breaks blog

Resolved chaniquoi
(@chaniquoi)

20 years, 12 months ago

I’m trying to use the upload feature, but it says the directory doesn’t appear to be writable by WordPress. So I use FTP to change it to 766 and then all the themes disappear and the site is broken. The only way to fix the site is to delete wp-content (which is a pain in ftp) and then re-upload it. But it still doesn’t fix the upload feature.

The newly uploaded directory is now set to 766, but I still get the same error.

As this seems simple I am very frustrated. Your help would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

Viewing 9 replies - 1 through 9 (of 9 total)

tomhanna
(@tomhanna)

20 years, 12 months ago

It would need to be 777 not 766, for a directory. Directory have to be readable and executable before they can be writeable.

And don’t use wp-content for your uplaod directory. Create a separate directory and CHMOD it to 777. Then CHMOD your wp-content directory to 755.

Thread Starter chaniquoi
(@chaniquoi)

20 years, 12 months ago

How do I re-direct the upload link to the new directory?

tomhanna
(@tomhanna)

20 years, 11 months ago

In the Dashboard (Administration Panel) go to Options | Miscellaneous and the first section deals with uploads. The first two options are for the destination directory and destination URL. change /wp-content to /upload or /images or /stuff or whatever you want to name it in both destination directory and URL of this directory.

desteele
(@desteele)

20 years, 10 months ago

I’m having the same problem…I’ve created a new uploads directory, chmodded it (through SmartFTP) to 777, and I still get
“It doesn’t look like you can use the file upload feature at this time because the directory you have specified (/blog/uploads) doesn’t appear to be writable by WordPress. Check the permissions on the directory and for typos.”

Anyone have any other ideas? It was working fine on an original install, then I moved it and this is the only thing that broke from what I can tell. :-\

estjohn
(@estjohn)

20 years, 10 months ago

are you sure the ftp client actually chmodded the direcotry?I know if I use an FTP client on my directory, I dont et an error if I change permissions, but it doesnt take. I can go back and look at the directory from the server and the permissions are the same as they were so the permission settings in my ftp client dont change it.

desteele
(@desteele)

20 years, 10 months ago

AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!! I discovered the answer, and I’ll guarantee you that this would fix 99% of those cases out there that the CHMOD to 777 didn’t fix. You can’t use a relative path (ie: blog/wp-content), rather, you must use the absolute path (ie: /home/content/X/X/X/XXXXXXXX/html/blog/wp-content).

As soon as I changed that, it fired right up.

desteele
(@desteele)

20 years, 10 months ago

OK, let me back up and say I’ll bet this fixes it on those mysterious cases because on my previous host, I could use the relative path. My new host, for whatever reason, requires the absolute path.

vkaryl
(@vkaryl)

20 years, 10 months ago

Relative paths are really great when you aren’t sure where you want something to “live forever”…. but absolute paths are nearly foolproof, and with a decent html editor, you just do a sitewide search and replace if you DO have to change them….

desteele
(@desteele)

20 years, 10 months ago

And here’s a tip for those who don’t know how to find out the absolute path.

1. create a new text document.

2. place the following inside of it and save it:
<?php
$p = getcwd();
echo $p;
?>

3. rename to path.php

4. place it into the directory whose path you want to determine.

5. in a browser, navigate to the relative URL/path of this file, ie: http://www.yoursite.com/desireddirectory/path.php

6. You’ll see your answer.