Reputation: 1147

Unable to create directory in wp-content/uploads in Wordpress

I am not able to upload any images to the Media section. I get this error message:

"Unable to create directory wp-content/uploads/2015/05. Is its parent directory writable by the server?"

I tried changing the permissions, gave full access 777 to both uploads, and wp-content directory but this didn't help.

I tried changing the owners to apache : apache for /wordpress/wp-content, but that hasn't helped either.

upload_path is set to wp-content/uploads in option-media.php. Still it is not working.

Tried defining upload path define(UPLOADS, 'wp-content/uploads');No Help.

(server: centos)

Upvotes: 45

Answers (25)

tom

Reputation: 1493

I had to do chmod ug+w wp-content/uploads

Upvotes: 0

Nitesh S Chauhan

Reputation: 205

Sometimes, the “Is its parent directory writable by the server?” issue occurs because WordPress can’t recognize the location of the uploads folder.

You might face the problem after you have just moved your site to another hosting provider. To fix it, you need to modify your WordPress config file:

Access your hosting file manager or FTP, and search for the wp-config.php file. It is commonly located in the root folder of your website (/public_html).
Open the file and add the following code:

define( 'UPLOADS', 'wp-content/uploads' );

before this line:

require_once(ABSPATH . 'wp-settings.php');

Save the file. Now, try to upload your media files again.

Upvotes: 0

Redgard

Reputation: 21

I had the same error which required me around two dasy and 4 hours to find a solution ( occasionally by the way). That was a local wordpress installation on my Fedora 37 (linux distro) running by the LAMPP. The project was located in /opt/lampp/htdocs/fu folder. The first day I tried everything from creating the "uploads" directory manually to applying the chmod and chown to the wp-content and all folders and files within it. Nothing helped. The second day I apllied the following commands to the whole /fu/ poject folder

find /opt/lampp/htdocs/fu/ -type d -exec chmod 777 {} \;
find /opt/lampp/htdocs/fu/ -type f -exec chmod 777 {} \;

and the problem has gone.

Upvotes: -1

williom zach

Reputation: 11

these problem maybe you have faced after changed your hosting just log in your wordpress and and go to Media just change path wp-content.

you can check in deep:- https://blog.aaaenos.com/unable-to-create-directory-uploads-year-month-is-its-parent-directory-writable-by-the-server/

Upvotes: 1

Bhuvanagiri Gireesh

Reputation: 43

To solve this annoying error, you need to change the path of the old uploads folder to the new one. Follow these steps to solve the problem:

Log in to your WordPress admin panel (wp-admin). In the left menu go to Settings » Media. Media Settings - WordPress In the Store uploads in this folder field, enter wp-content/uploads and click Save changes. Change WordPress Uploads Folder Now you are done, go and try to upload files to the media library again. NOTE: make sure that the Store uploads in this folder field container image description here wp-content/uploads only.

Another Way:-

If you can’t find the field on your media settings page you can solve the problem by adding the following code in your wp-config.php file:

Go to wp-config file........ using FTP or Local server paste the following code

define( 'UPLOADS', 'wp-content/uploads' ); require_once(ABSPATH . 'wp-settings.php');

And the “Unable to Create Directory wp-content/uploads. Is Its Parent Directory Writable by the Server” error will be fixed.

Upvotes: 3

pcodex

Reputation: 1940

For me I had migrated to another server and my media settings had got clobbered. I had to explicitly reset the uploads folder.

Here's what worked for me :

From your Wordpress dashboard go to Settings->Media and set

"Store uploads in this folder" to "wp-content/uploads"

Upvotes: 0

Mahabubur Rahman

Reputation: 160

I'm an Arch Linux user. My WordPress location is (/srv/http/wordpress). I faced this problem before.

At first, I change my WordPress ownerships to $USER:http.

sudo chown -R -c $USER:http /srv/http/wordpress

(don't go root to change ownership with this command then $USER will be root)

you can check who is the user with

echo $USER

I created an uploads folder in wordpress/wp-content/uploads. Then give the read, write, and execute permission to the user and group of wp-content and wp-content/uploads directory.

sudo chmod 774 wp-content/
sudo chmod 774 wp-content/uploads/

hope it will helps someone.

Upvotes: 1

roy650

Reputation: 642

For me it was a disk space issue - my account was simply over its quota and therefore would not allow any increase in the form of a folder creation or plugin installation.

Simply clear some disk space and try again.

Upvotes: 0

Warui Kamiri

Reputation: 129

You may have to add a folder named uploads first before you change any permissions.

My environment is xampp in Ubuntu 18.04 and the Wordpress installation failed to create the folder 'uploads'.

cd into the wp-content directory.

mkdir uploads

while still in the wp-content path, use chmod 0777 to add the relevant permissions:

sudo chmod 0777 uploads

This worked for me.

Upvotes: 8

Manjaro

Reputation: 1

For manjaro Linux in the wordpress directory:

sudo chown -R  http:http wp-content

That worked for me.

Upvotes: 0

perseus

Reputation: 1381

This is a solution when you are on your local but can be applied also on a server.

Sometimes if you get a backup from the database that is on a server and you recover it on your local you will have this problem: "Unable to create directory..." even if you have the correct permissions on your folder. This happens because WP points to a value on upload_path on the database.

So go to wp_options table.

Search for upload_path and check if the path is correct.

If not. (on mac and unix) Go to your upload folder, drag it to the terminal. And use pwd command copy the response on upload_path on the database.

Hopefully this will help someone.

Upvotes: 6

Maihan Nijat

Reputation: 9344

I was looking for a MAC/ OSX solution and found this related question but it didn't help. The following works for me: 1- Right-click on wp-content and go to Get Info and change permissions as follow:

After click on the setting gear icon and Apply to enclosed items....

Upvotes: 1

Dilip Raj Baral

Reputation: 3070

This is sometimes an issue with file and directory ownership than permissions. Find out the user the php code is executing as using phpinfo() page.

Once you know the system user, make sure the FTP account you are using is configured to upload the files as that user. If it has been uploaded using different user, use chown to change the ownership of the base path to match the user.

For example:

$ sudo chown -R <user> /path/to/public_html

Upvotes: 1

user4796874

Reputation:

Debian like:

chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/{yourpath}/wp-content/uploads

Upvotes: 45

zfd

Reputation: 31

I have managed to solve this by updating the reference to Settings Media Store uploads folder.

Go to WordPress admin -> Settings -> Media, and update Store uploads in this folder option with what is in your public_html hosting account.

/home/<base_folder_name>/public_html/wp-content/uploads

For me the <base_folder_name> was different than what was in the hosting account.

Upvotes: 3

Elias Missaoui

Reputation: 9

This solution worked for me:

chown -R www-data:www-data /path-to-mywordpress-root-folde

Upvotes: 1

RyanLei

Reputation: 41

I tried all the solutions from How to Fix the Unable to create directory Error in WordPress in my Centos7. But it won't work.

Then I found some useful message in /var/log/audit/audit.log

type=AVC msg=audit(1495357844.782:604): avc: denied { write } for pid=2721 comm="httpd" name="wp-content" dev="dm-5" ino=1074299184 scontext=system_u:system_r:httpd_t:s0 tcontext=unconfined_u:object_r:etc_runtime_t:s0 tclass=dir type=SYSCALL msg=audit(1495357844.782:604): arch=c000003e syscall=83 success=no exit=-13 a0=7fffba9c62c0 a1=1ff a2=8 a3=5 items=0 ppid=1556 pid=2721 auid=4294967295 uid=48 gid=48 euid=48 suid=48 fsuid=48 egid=48 sgid=48 fsgid=48 tty=(none) ses=4294967295 comm="httpd" exe="/usr/sbin/httpd" subj=system_u:system_r:httpd_t:s0 key=(null)

Check the file infomation : ls -Z /data/web/wordpress

Found that SELinux prevented Httpd to access the files. So you can disable the SELinux, or modify the file context: chcon -R --type=httpd_sys_rw_content_t /data/web/wordpress . And it works.

Upvotes: 4

Mat

Reputation: 986

I had the same problem here on a Parallels Plesk server. I had to change the access permissions for the webserver/website user using the access options from within the file manager.

Hope this helps!

Upvotes: 1

Ruwantha

Reputation: 2653

Try following. Make sure {yourpath} is replaced with correct path

Creates upload directory with super user permission

sudo mkdir -p /var/www/{yourpath}/wp-content/uploads

Change ownership to the current user

sudo chown -R $USER:$USER /var/www/{yourpath}/wp-content/uploads

Upvotes: 1

tussa33

Reputation: 61

Go to wp-admin/options.php
Under upload_path replace with exactly wp-content/uploads (no quotes, no extra slashes)
That worked for me after I had tried to all other solutions for days.

Upvotes: 6

Mao

Reputation: 77

Just run this command:

sudo chown -R www-data /path/to/wordpress

hope it helps.

Upvotes: 0

Andaramis

Reputation: 139

Change permissions on the /wp-content directory to 0775 and try it again.

sudo chmod 0775 {yourpath}/wp-content/uploads

If it fails, change the permissions to 0777 and try again.

sudo chmod 0777 {yourpath}/wp-content/uploads

Once it is successful, be sure to return the permissions on /wp-content to whatever they were when you started.

You may also want to put the permissions back on any other files you changed while attempting to resolve the issue.

More options you can find here: https://www.tipsandtricks-hq.com/how-to-fix-the-unable-to-create-directory-error-in-wordpress-5264

Reggards

Upvotes: 9

Sasa Jovanovic

Reputation: 334

If this error is showed after migrating wordpress to new server check upload path in: settings->media->Store uploads in this folder

default value is wp-content/uploads.

Probably you have old path.

Upvotes: 7

rajatsaurastri

Reputation: 653

"The uploaded file could not be moved to wp-content/uploads/2015/05."

This error comes because of insufficient permission to your user on to the server.

One Quick and dirty way to solve this error is to set 777 permission but some time it may not also work.

Follow this link this will help you http://2surge.com/how-to-fix-the-uploaded-file-could-not-be-moved-to-wp-content-error-message/

Thanks

Upvotes: 2

MRMorrell

Reputation: 141

I was having a similar problem after migrating from a development site to a production site. It turned out that the message is deceptive. Check Settings, Media. Verify the directory for media is accurate for the current site. If the site was migrated, the directory listed still be from the old site and may need to be updated.

Upvotes: 14

Unable to create directory in wp-content/uploads in Wordpress

Answers (25)

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