I’ve installed a lot of WordPress sites, and on some hosting sites there is a problem with file permissions, where WordPress doesn’t have the ability to use FTP, and prompts the user in the admin section to enter the FTP information. This is a pain, and sometimes it doesn’t work.
Basically, the best thing to do is try to avoid calling the hosting company because they will just direct you to WordPress. If you add the following lines in the wp-config.php in the root directory, it should resolve the problem. Remember, when you upgrade this fix will disappear so you’ll have to put the code in the new wp-config file.
define(‘FTP_HOST’, ‘localhost’);
define(‘FTP_USER’, ‘yourFTPuser’);
define(‘FTP_PASS’, ‘yourPassword’);
define(‘FS_TIMEOUT’, 900);
define(‘WP_MEMORY_LIMIT’, ’64M’);
I had a particular problem with Network Solutions during an install. They install a whole bunch of plugins and themes on the auto install, with a different FTP user, and so we don’t have permissions to delete the files, which means you can’t even upgrade a plugin. Nice.
Fortunately there is a good thread on the WordPress forum on how to resolve this. Basically you have to reset the FTP permissions from the NetworkSolutions control panel. I wish their tech support had a clue because they didn’t even find this issue in their system. I even escalated it to the supervisor and he didn’t seem to care this was their problem and it would happen with every install of WordPress. Whatever, they must field a lot of tech support calls and it costs them a lot of money…..
