Diagnosing why auto-update doesn’t work

  • Hello,
    I am using WordPress on several installations.
    On BlueHost I have this fantastic Auto-update feature working, it is great.

    Now on other hosts the Auto-Update doesn’t work.
    It just pops up a page with FTP settings, but I’m sure FTP is not an issue.

    My problem is that I cannot diagnose why exactly wordpress cannot do the auto-update.
    It is more likely it is a folder permissions problem, but who knows!.

    Now, what does it do exactly, when auto-updating?
    is there a checklist or a logfile for diagnosing and solving problems of the auto-update procedure?

    Thanks for any hint, and keep up good work on this fantastic CMS

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)

  • Try changing WP folder permissions to 777 (with all it’s content) and update. Then change the permissions back.

    Moderator Samuel Wood (Otto)

    (@otto42)

    www.remarpro.com Admin

    Different hosts have different setups. WordPress has 5 different possible ways to update itself, depending on the configuration of the server its running on.

    On some hosts (notably ones that run “suPHP”, allowing the software to run with the file owner’s credentials instead of with the webserver credentials), the software has access to modify its own files directly. In those cases, update simply happens using the ‘direct’ mode.

    On other hosts, it doesn’t have the access to modify its own files and maintain the same ownership and permissions and and such. Those latter hosts give the FTP login credentials, and WordPress attempts to log in to itself via FTP, in order to be able to change the files using the proper user credentials.

    Basically, you get different methods being used on different systems because they are configured differently.

    Thread Starter cleoni

    (@cleoni)

    OK, most likely Bluehost has this suPHP mode. It works wonderfully and never had trobules.

    The server on which I have the problem is a plain and simple Linux box so it is the second type.

    I have assumed that, during plugins update, I need to enable write access for user,group and others on folder plugins and subfolders/subfiles. Insted it does not work.
    Does it download files in some temp folder, somewhere else that it cannot create?

    You see, I would not like to enable write access for all files and folders of the wp installation without real need.
    It is simply not clear to me where it puts the downloaded files.

    Moderator Samuel Wood (Otto)

    (@otto42)

    www.remarpro.com Admin

    Make the wp-content directory writable. I believe it attempts to download the file into there.

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)
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