How to Fix 'Unable to create directory' error when uploading image into WordPress

How to Fix ‘Unable to create directory’ error when uploading image into WordPress

Categories: Troubleshooting

error_icon This post has a textual and video instructions showing how to fix the WordPress “Unable to create directory” error when uploading/inserting image into WordPress.

I started getting the “Unable to create directory /wp-content/uploads/2008/12. Is its parent directory writable by the server?” error when uploading or inserting image into a WordPress post just after upgrading to WordPress 2.7. First I thought it is a directory permission related error so I tried changing the permission of my ‘upload’ directory to 777 but I was still having the same problem. After trying many things I was able to fix it using the following method.

Log into your WordPress Admin account.
Go to ‘Miscellaneous’ Settings options from the ‘Settings’ menu.
In the Miscellaneous Settings put wp-content/uploads in the “Store uploads in this folder” text box.
Save the Changes by hitting the “Save Changes” button and you are done.

Fix WordPress Image Upload Error: Video Instructions

Let me know if this method worked for you.

Tags: Troubleshooting, Video Tutorial, Web development, web masters, Wordpress

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#1 by adedip on January 5, 2009 - 12:23 pm

the video is quite hard to understand..I can’t read anything..but a part from this..this is almost the default solution..it does help only the rookies..there’s something wrong in the 2.7 core code…
and I still can’t figure out what!
May help to know..that for me happens only if I use the sub-folder (year/month) organization..otherwise it works!

#2 by John on March 24, 2009 - 6:06 pm

I’ve tried this – still doesn’t work. Still haven’t found the problem.

#3 by admin on March 25, 2009 - 10:14 pm

What sort of error do you get?

#4 by Werner on March 27, 2009 - 2:15 pm

I went to the miscellaneous settings and saw that my upload path was wrong. Thank you so much for your help.

#5 by Chin on April 23, 2009 - 1:37 am

As I have installed the WordPress in the 1click installer / Fantastico Installer the path was complete from root to this folder.

When I changed to default value (wp-content/uploads), Its works fine.

Thanks a lot to Tips and Tricks.

#6 by ryanel on July 1, 2009 - 1:27 am

go to option,general, look for the temp folder. and guide to the temp folder or where u want to put the temporary loads.

#7 by itamar on September 5, 2009 - 7:11 pm

Thank you so much for this!
I was running mamp on my laptop and this was doing my head in!
resolved now thanks to your post!

#8 by sergee on September 6, 2009 - 3:39 am

If you tryed everything and upload in your wordpress still doesn’t work – i have an answer for you. In short: php safe mode won’t let you create files or directories if your php scripts and upload directory belongs to different users. So there are 2 possible solutions: either disable php safemode (not recommended), or change an owner of scripts and upload directory:

cd blog_root
chown -R apache:apache *

Complete description available here: http://tamkovich.com/2009/09/unable-to-create-directory-wp-content-uploads-is-its-parent-directory-writable-by-the-server/ (in Russian)

#9 by Steve Fisher on September 20, 2009 - 1:43 pm

Thanks! The resetting permissions made me feel uneasy.

This was a simple reset because the install put a long string rooted to the shared server which of course wouldn’t give permission.

-Steve
Steve Fisher´s last blog ..Hello world!

#10 by raj on October 14, 2009 - 10:11 am

sir i em also facing the same problem

i saw your tutorial video and do setting accordingly but still facing the same problem
so plz tell me the other solution

#11 by Marcus on October 19, 2009 - 8:31 am

Awesome. I knew all about the file permission stuff (and they wouldn’t fix it), but by changing the upload path worked. Really sneaky error.

Thanks for helping out.
-M

#12 by Tuba on December 7, 2009 - 12:34 am

Thank you for your guide. Actually just to be more clear:

Under step 3:
“Miscellaneous Settings put wp-content/uploads in the “Store uploads in this folder” text box.”

Meaning replace the whole content of that field… instead of the anything there like /home/user/yorusete/wp-content/uploads

Thanks for your help!
Tuba´s last blog ..How do I Flush DNS?

#13 by admin on December 7, 2009 - 4:27 am

Thanks for clarifying that up

#14 by Sarah on January 6, 2010 - 4:54 pm

Thanks, worked a treat!
Sarah´s last blog ..New Years Resolutions (In the words of Father Jack: ‘Arse!’)

#15 by Luke Moujlton on January 12, 2010 - 7:06 am

Thanks heaps – that was doing my head in!
Luke Moujlton´s last blog ..Making the Most of Your Shopping Cart Thank You Page

#16 by Recokiao on January 25, 2010 - 6:52 pm

Thanks, it was fast and is more secure, because, un other pages are saying to put your upload folder permisions on 777.

Thanks again , the video is ok as it is.
Recokiao´s last blog ..Partes femeninas que ellos admiran a primera vista

#17 by Abdul Cholik on February 9, 2010 - 7:42 am

Thank you very much for your tip.
I have fixed my problem. May I post this article on my blog so that my friend could be able to ffix the same problem ? I’ll link my post to this article.
Regards

#18 by Eric Transue on March 30, 2010 - 2:48 pm

Thank you for your help. Your tip fixed my issue.
Eric Transue´s last blog ..Gary Vaynerchuk Says Do The Shit You Love

#19 by Special Tips on April 4, 2010 - 3:26 am

thanks very much, it works
Special Tips´s last blog ..[News] ILGA Congress Repotedly Still Held in Secret Place in Surabaya, Indonesia

#20 by Patricia on April 13, 2010 - 11:56 am

Wish I had seen your post earlier – it worked like a charm and gosh so simple.

I had seen a few other posts where they talked about changing the path in the the mySQL database and the phpmyadmin. Although I tried , I was confused as could be.

I’m now a raving fan & will be following your blogs, tweets and everywhere else you are.
You totally rock!
Patricia´s last blog ..10 Foods That Can Boost Metabolism

#21 by Glanzer on April 23, 2010 - 11:59 am

This didn’t work for me, but I now know why… I am building a site for someone and they’ve exceeded their 5 MB quota. Yes, someone opted for a plan that allows only 5MB of storage space.
Glanzer´s last blog ..My Dream Job

#22 by admin on April 23, 2010 - 7:30 pm

No comment… LOL

#23 by Troy on May 2, 2010 - 12:03 am

Worked great for me, thanks for the help.
Troy´s last blog ..Telling Your Family About A Mental Health Issue

#24 by Allin on May 10, 2010 - 9:14 am

Cheers. I had a full path of webspace/httpdocs/example.com/wp-content/uploads in the uploads box. restoring the default worked.

#25 by Saef Reyad on May 10, 2010 - 9:45 am

i did this but am still having the same problem, is there is anything else i can do.

thanks

#26 by Saef Reyad on May 10, 2010 - 9:58 am

ok i did it finally, thanks

#27 by Jordan on May 19, 2010 - 3:03 am

I have tried everything you walked through a number of times and am still getting the error message. Could be a problem with my server/host?
Jordan´s last blog ..castles in the sky

#28 by admin on May 19, 2010 - 7:13 am

Did you check that the directory permissions are correct?

#29 by Custom Dog Tags on May 31, 2010 - 9:27 am

Thanks a lot. I have now solved the problem on my dog tags blog.

#30 by Tim on June 9, 2010 - 3:34 pm

I had this problem and spent several hours reading posts about with no luck. My permissions were right and the upload folder path was correct.

I realised that it was a SELinux issue for me. If you run SELinux then you will need to run the command below to allow apache (httpd) to execute particular PHP commands, including creating new files and folders. Here is the command:

chcon -R -t httpd_sys_content_t

Hope that helps someone else. This was driving me crazy and I was about ready to give up and uninstall WordPress. Glad it didn’t come to that.

#31 by Morten Croatia on June 10, 2010 - 10:01 am

Thanks for small guide, it solved my problem (-:

What it think is really strange, i have several pages on same template, by the same hoster, this problem only occored one my swedish page, the rest works with out this problem?

Any this was one of the most easy problems to solve, thanks once again

Morten
Morten Croatia´s last blog ..Costs in Croatia | Holiday budget Croatia

#32 by Ryan on June 10, 2010 - 11:04 pm

For those of you that get this error message after having a blog transferred to you, this fix works like a charm. Because sometimes when transferring it keeps the file path of the original owners server.

Thanks for the quick and perfect fix!

#33 by Jonny on June 22, 2010 - 2:58 pm

lifesaver, thanks.
Jonny´s last blog ..ShellsuitZombie Magazine ISSUE 1 Launch party w00t w00t

#34 by Ryan on June 24, 2010 - 2:17 pm

Just found the issue.

Even though we are told to put in the
relative path
/wp-content/uploads

it didn’t work.. what did was to put in your domain name before making it an absolute path

such as
http://www.mydomain.com/wp-content/uploads

and ta-dah ..it worked!

#35 by Troy on July 4, 2010 - 1:12 pm

Thanks. It worked perfectly!

#36 by agon on July 12, 2010 - 6:18 pm

there is another fixing trick…change the permission on the wp-content directory to 766, 777 or 767…when u upload the pic… then change it as it was 755…

#37 by Leigh on July 29, 2010 - 4:30 pm

Thanks so much for this post! I recently moved hosts, and I was baffled at what could possibly be wrong. The path was the entire server path. Once I changed it as you said, everything worked perfectly again.
Leigh´s last blog ..Tips to avoid the summer reading slump

#38 by Chris on August 25, 2010 - 12:26 pm

Hello

I have just installed word press 3.0.1 and am having the error message as above. It sounds silly but in word press 3.0.1 I cannot find Miscellaneous Settings under settings on my dash board.

Does any one know where i can find miscellaneous settings to correct my upload problem.

Regards

Chris

#39 by Ivy on August 25, 2010 - 11:11 pm