Fixed:
To anyone else having this problem add this to the end of your wp-config.php file:
define( ‘FTP_USER’, ‘username’ );
define( ‘FTP_PASS’, ‘password’ );
define( ‘FTP_HOST’, ‘ftp.example.org:21’ );
define(‘FS_METHOD’, ‘direct’);
(fill in the FTP details with yours)
then chmod 755 to the wp-content directory using this command:
chmod -R 777 /dir1/dir2/dir3/wordpress/wp-content/