File Permissions Problem

for reference I have a separate user set up for ftp access during wordpress upgrades and depending on whether the upgrade needs to create directories etc it fails but not before it deletes the them and renders/leaves the site in white screen mode.

I wish the update/upgrade would first qualify that the process end-to-end is enabled so to speak before deleting files and then finding out it can’t replace them.

I had WP 4.1 upgrade and also theme upgrade to twentyfourteen. The 2014 theme update only made it halfway thru before aborting. It left the site in white mode.

I think ssh in and need to do temporary recursive Chown on dirs and files so that the process completes, and then reset all permissions back to 755 original apache owner.

Craig