{"id":6880,"date":"2019-12-10T05:25:23","date_gmt":"2019-12-10T05:25:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.milesweb.co.uk\/hosting-faqs\/?p=6880"},"modified":"2019-12-10T05:25:23","modified_gmt":"2019-12-10T05:25:23","slug":"fixing-the-is-its-parent-directory-writable-by-the-server-wordpress-error","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.milesweb.co.uk\/hosting-faqs\/fixing-the-is-its-parent-directory-writable-by-the-server-wordpress-error\/","title":{"rendered":"Fixing the \u201cIs its parent directory writable by the server?\u201d WordPress Error"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In this article, you will learn how to fix the \u201cIs its parent directory writable by the server?\u201d error. This is a common issue in WordPress that restricts you from uploading files to your website.<\/p>\n<p><strong>1. Fixing the \u201cIs its parent directory writable by the server?\u201d Error on Shared Hosting<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Method 1 \u2013 Changing the Uploads Folder Directory<\/li>\n<li>Method 2 \u2013 Changing Folder Permissions<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>2. Fixing the \u201cIs its parent directory writable by the server?\u201d Error on VPS<\/strong><\/p>\n<h3>Fixing the \u201cIs its parent directory writable by the server?\u201d Error on Shared Hosting<\/h3>\n<p>The cause of the error can be incorrect permissions, ownerships, or location of the uploads folder. But no matter what the cause is, you will learn to fix this error quickly via this article.<\/p>\n<p>You can resolve this error on shared hosting via two methods \u2014 by changing the directory path and permissions of the uploads folder.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Method 1 \u2013 Changing the Uploads Folder Directory<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Sometimes, when the WordPress can\u2019t recognize the location of the uploads folder, it gives the error as <strong>\u201cIs its parent directory writable by the server?\u201d.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>This problem might occur when you just moved your site to another hosting provider. For this, you need to modify your <strong>WordPress config<\/strong> file:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Go to your hosting <strong>File Manager or FTP<\/strong>, and search for the wp-config.php file. You will find it in the root folder of your website (\/public_html).<\/li>\n<li>Open the file and include the below code:\n<pre class=\"lang:default decode:true \">define( 'UPLOADS', 'wp-content\/uploads' );<\/pre>\n<p>prior to this line:<\/p>\n<pre class=\"lang:default decode:true \">require_once(ABSPATH . 'wp-settings.php');<\/pre>\n<\/li>\n<li>Save the file and try to upload your media files again.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><strong>Method 2 \u2013 Changing Folder Permissions<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>After following the above method, still you get <strong>\u201cIs its parent directory writable by the server?\u201d<\/strong> error, try to reset the permissions of your uploads folder.<\/p>\n<p><em>Just follow the instructions below:<\/em><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Using an <strong>FTP client or file manager<\/strong>, connect to your account.<\/li>\n<li>Navigate to the <strong>WordPress installation directory<\/strong> \u2014 commonly in<strong> \/public_html<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>Now, open the <strong>wp-content folder<\/strong> and right-click on the <strong>uploads<\/strong> folder.<\/li>\n<li>Then click on <strong>File Permissions<\/strong> and a new dialogue box will pop up. Go to the <strong>Numeric Value<\/strong> field and enter <strong>755<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>Scroll down and check the <strong>Recurse into subdirectories<\/strong> box.<\/li>\n<li>Select <strong>Apply<\/strong> to directories only and click <strong>OK<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>With this method, the permissions of the uploads folder and its subfolders will be reset to <strong>755<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>The number indicates the owner of the file can read, write, and run the file. This is essential for allowing the directory to be writable. This will resolve the \u201cIs its parent directory writable by the server?\u201d error.<\/p>\n<h3>Fixing the \u201cIs its parent directory writable by the server?\u201d Error on VPS<\/h3>\n<p>In case your WordPress site is hosted on VPS, you can try the following solution to fix <strong>\u201cIs its parent directory writable by the server?\u201d<\/strong> error. But, remember this method only works for Linux running on Apache web server.<\/p>\n<p>Prior to starting, let\u2019s learn some basics. By default, the Apache web server uses the <strong>www-data<\/strong> user and <strong>www-data<\/strong> group to access files and folders.<\/p>\n<p>On the other hand, it can be that the uploads folder is not owned by <strong>www-data<\/strong>. This situation gives the error as <strong>\u201cIs its parent directory writable by the server?\u201d<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>In order to change the owner of the uploads directory to <strong>www-data<\/strong> you need to follow the below steps:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Using <strong>SSH<\/strong>, connect to your VPS.<\/li>\n<li>Go to the <strong>wp-content<\/strong> folder located within your <strong>WordPress installation directory<\/strong>.\n<pre class=\"lang:default decode:true \">cd public_html\/wp-content<\/pre>\n<\/li>\n<li>Change the owner and group of the uploads folder to <strong>www-data<\/strong> by running the below command:\n<pre class=\"lang:default decode:true \">chown -R www-data:www-data plugins<\/pre>\n<\/li>\n<li>Similar to shared hosting, the default permissions for the uploads folder might be incorrect. Therefore, when you are within the <strong>wp-content<\/strong> folder, you can run the following command:\n<pre class=\"lang:default decode:true \">chmod 755 -R uploads<\/pre>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>With this permissions for plugins and all subdirectories inside it will be set to <strong>755<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>This solution won\u2019t not work if you switched over to a new hosting provider, as configurations between hosting services can vary.<\/p>\n<h3>Conclusion<\/h3>\n<p>You might get frustrated due to the <strong>\u201cIs its parent directory writable by the server?\u201d<\/strong> issue because it won\u2019t allow you to upload files to your WordPress site. Fortunately, in this article, you have learned the different solutions to this error, both on shared hosting and VPS.<\/p>\n<p>Changing the owners and permissions of the uploads folder is the most commonly used method. If this option doesn\u2019t work, you may need to modify the uploads directory or the wp-config.php file.<\/p>\n<p>Hope that by following this guide, you can quickly fix the issue. Good luck!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In this article, you will learn how to fix the \u201cIs its parent directory writable by the server?\u201d error. This is a common issue in WordPress that restricts you from uploading files to your website. 1. Fixing the \u201cIs its parent directory writable by the server?\u201d Error on Shared Hosting Method 1 \u2013 Changing the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[78,714,1131],"class_list":["post-6880","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","placeholder-for-hentry","category-wordpress-faq","tag-wordpress-2","tag-wordpress-error","tag-wordpress-file-upload-error"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Fixing the \u201cIs its parent directory writable by the server?\u201d WordPress Error<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The article reveals the steps to fix the &quot;\u201cIs its parent directory writable by the server?\u201d WordPress error.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, 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