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I am unable to install any theme/plugin to my wordpress 3.0 

Downloading install package from http://downloads.wordpress.org/plugin/contact-form-7.2.3.1.zip…    
Unpacking the package…    
Installing the plugin…    
Could not copy file. /public_html/blog/wp-content/plugins/contact-form-7/languages/wpcf7-lt_LT.po    
Plugin install failed.


Downloading install package from http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/download/piano-black.2.2.zip…
Unpacking the package…
Could not create directory. /public_html

Downloading install package from http://downloads.wordpress.org/plugin/contact-form-7.2.3.1.zip…
Unpacking the package…
Could not create directory. /public_html/blog/wp-content/upgrade/contact-form-7.tmp/contact-form-7

I get similar messages everytime. Is there any solution?

Update 12/01/2012: If you're using a latest version of WP (3.1 and above, 3.3.1 as of today), you will not have any problems. These issues have been removed. Enjoy your WP.

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4 Answers 4

Reset to default
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headdesk

Permissions on all WordPress files should be 644. Permissions on all WordPress directories should be 755.

Exceptions:

  • The uploads directory may need to be 775 or 777, depending on your server configuration.
  • wp-config.php should be 600, 640, or 644, whatever is the lowest number that works.

Never, ever, give higher permissions than those. That way lies dragons.

If you're having trouble writing files, then the first thing to do is to install the Core Control plugin and try to figure out what is failing. Specifically, the "Filesystem" module lets you diagnose which mechanism WP_Filesystem is attempting to use. That way, you don't waste time screwing around with the wrong thing: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/core-control/

Once you know the mechanism (probably the FTP method or a direct method) then you'll better know how to approach the issue.

  • If it's direct, then you either have a file ownership issue or a permissions issue.
  • If it's FTP, then you may have a loopback connectivity issue, or a file ownership issue.
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  • This didn't help me. I can do some plugins, just not one I created. If I FTP the plugin up and activate it, it works. The Core Control plugin didn't help me understand the problem either. I tried playing with the permissions on the upgrade folder from 755 to 777 to deleting and recreating again and still no good.
    – Volomike
    Mar 12, 2012 at 9:47
  • Aha! I found the source of my problem. My plugin's zip folder had a Linux alias in it that I forgot to remove. That's like a shortcut to a folder. The WordPress fopen command in the direct method was failing, and because WordPress was doing @fopen, I could never tell the error. I had to step through wp-admin/includes/class-wp-filesystem-direct.php until I found this fopen, removed the @, reran the test, and found the problem. I removed the alias folder from the zip and it works well now.
    – Volomike
    Mar 12, 2012 at 10:09
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Check your folder permission. Most likely your folder doesn't have correct permission.

The permission should be set to 777. If you have cPanel on your host, then it would be easy for your to do because the GUI is similar to WIndows.

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    I would relax the permission slowly. 777 should be the last option. Test from lower permissions and see if it works before going all the the way to 777.
    – phwd
    Aug 10, 2010 at 11:15
  • Permissions are a very likely culprit. I'd go so far as to contact technical support at your hosting company and ask what permissions should be set on folders/files that the server application needs to modify.
    – dgw
    Aug 10, 2010 at 20:33
  • It doesn't work :-(
    – San
    Aug 19, 2010 at 9:16
  • Telling people to just set permissions to 777 is very dangerous and exposing your site to hacks, its like giving a copy of the door keys to someone! People will do this, fix the problem then likely not go any further to remove 777 permissions.
    – AdamJones
    Apr 28, 2016 at 20:14
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Are you recursively changing the permissions? /public_html/blog/wp-content/plugins/ would need to be 755, 775, or 777 depending on whether you're the same user, same group, or neither, respectively, as the file/folder owner. I agree with phwd that 777 should be a last resort.

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to my experience, check wp-content.. is there "upgrade" folder? if isn't, you must create it, n set to 777 or if the upgrade folder exists, u must remove it n recreate the new one

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