Could not copy file: /public_html/blog/wp-content/upgrade/wordpress-2.8/wordpres

I’m getting the same message although I was upgrading from 2.7.1 a first time. A few plug-ins broke, but I was able to fix those with re-installs or deactivation/reactivation.

I got the same message about not being able to copy the wp-comments-post.php file, and here’s how I fixed it:

1. I logged into my server via ftp
2. Located the upgrade files in wp-content/upgrade
3. Tried to delete the core directory and all its contents (these, I believe are the upgrade files)
4. I was denied permission to delete these files (on my own server no less), so I used Terminal (on a mac) to ssh into the server and delete the ‘core’ directory.
5. Re-ran the upgrade from within WP, and all was well.

Hope this helps.

Well I had no problem deleting the file, but when I re-ran the upgrade I got the same error. ??

I’m also having same situation, I successfully upgraded to 2.8 but couldn’t upgrade any plugins…the message : Could not copy file /public_html/wp-content/upgrade/my-category-order.2.8/my-category-order/mycategoryorder-de_DE.mo

fwiw, i reset my upgrade folder file permissions to 777 and i was able to upgrade. got a weird error message right before that popped up and was gone so I was not able to get a screenshot or read it, but i am upgraded successfully now. i think it said something about MSQL. no problems so far, but we’ll see how it goes.

I downloaded a copy of 2.8 to my local PC. Logged into CPanel, opened file manager and did a copy and paste/replace job of the wp-comments-post.php file. I was then able to upgrade via the WP admin panel auto-upgrade function. Guess the upgrade process checked to see if the latest update date of the wp-comments-post.php was more recent than the auto-upgrade version and, seeing that it was updated on 6-22 the auto-update function didn’t even attempt to upload the WP 2.8 version, which I believe has the wp-comments-post.php file dated in May 2009.

Hope that all makes sense. I, too, am always groping around in the dark when it comes to mucking with code, servers, etc.

Hi, I have the same problem and found out, that some files in the upgrade/core/wordpress path have an empty file size. If I open the file it is empty. Example: revisions-js.php in upgrade/core/wordpress/wp-admin/js/

It seems to me that in the process of copying from the temporary folder to upgrade/core/wordpress a different process deletes the content. Maybe a virus protection or so.

This error happens only at my hoster “hosteurope” but not on my hoster “hoststar”.

Maybe this is a hint to further improvement.

Hi guys ??
I too ran into this problem last night.
After doing all the necessary backups I was prepared to do a manual install but I had a quick thought.

I first installed WordPress using Fantastico in cPanel. I went back into Fantastico, where it urged me to upgrade, I gave it a shot and it was successful!

I understand that a lot of you would’ve installed WP manually and that this step won’t work for you but for those who did use the autoinstaller – see what happens?

Deleting the Core folder in wp-content/upgrade/ worked for me

I was getting the same error on every plugin upgrade.
My upgrades folder had a file in it- that I couldn’t delete.
I deleted the upgrades folder in wp-content/
made a new upgrades folder-
set it to 755
voila- everything worked.

Deleting the WordPress folder in wp-content/upgrade/ worked as well for me as I too was experiencing the same error.

For some reason I’ve never been able to make this upgrade feature work either. Once, I think, it worked flawlessly for me. Every other time- I’d get a nice little error that would go something like:
Could not copy file: /blah/wp-content/upgrade/wordpress-2.tmp/wordpress/wp-comments-post.php
I’ve tried all the standard tricks; recreating wp-content/upgrade and setting permissions, etc. It would be nice to have this upgrader say why exactly it failed (aren’t detailed error messages actually helpful?)

Anyhow, this trick worked for me. I ssh’d in and ran this (totally cheating, I know):

watch -n0.1 "chmod a+rwx -R /blah/wp-content/upgrade/"

Then I initiated the upgrade and — the upgrade actually worked. It seems like the ftp method of uploading forgets, inadvertently resets, or otherwise assumes way too much in ways of permissions.

DISCLAIMER: don’t follow this trick unless you know what you’re doing. Seriously. This resets all permissions recursively every 0.1 seconds.

Hi all,

THEMES

I was facing a similar problem while installing themes and was running the latest version of WordPress (Version 2.9.2).

I tried various themes, all which couldn’t get installed or copied.

So finally, I gave all the rights to the database user.
Still the problem existed.

And I was installing the themes from the Dashboard of the WordPress.

SOLUTION:
Went to the File Manager in my hosting service provider.
Gave all the rights to all the folders – which then appears as 777

Now installed the same theme that gave the error and it got installed and seems all set to go.

Best Wishes,
UD