Question

Wordpress asking for FTP Credentials

Posted February 21, 2014 135.9k views
https://www.digitalocean.com/community/articles/how-to-install-wordpress-on-ubuntu-12-04, Okay, I used this for installing my wordpress. When I am trying to install a new theme, it is asking for FTP credentials, but I don't know what to insert.
Add a comment
brightinworld
By:
brightinworld
Add a comment
1 comment
  • greengablesfan33 November 29, 2017
    Reply Report

    I am using a similar hosting site; I purchased their Ubuntu 16.04 VPS 12 dollars a month for 1 GB of RAM and 25 GB of storage. I used shell access and a tutorial on how to install the LAMP stack, and install WordPress using the chown and chmod commands. I assigned the user wordpressuer with sudo priveleges, and I created an SQl database with the same user using PHP My Admin. All was going well and smoothly, up until I got to the point where I needed to update WordPress and or install additional plugins. I tried using WinSCP to set every single file with 7777 permissions, but it still keeps asking me for FTP credentials, and I haven’t found any tutorials on how to set up an FTP server on Ubuntu 16.04 that could solve this problem until I can figure out why I keep getting this error. My WordPress and other stuff is in /var/www/html. I have it set up so that my WordPress is installed in a directory called /blog, and my podcast generator in /podcasts.
    Also, there is a popular CMS called Podcast Generator which I mentioned above. Before installing, it runs some scripts to determine if it has the needed writing and execution permissions in the following directories. If there are problems, it will tell you so you can change the writing permissions to 7777. I think WordPress needs to have something similar so it can be made easier to troubleshoot errors like these.

    edited by MattIPv4

These answers are provided by our Community. If you find them useful, show some love by clicking the heart. If you run into issues leave a comment, or add your own answer to help others.

18 answers
aakashpatel September 13, 2016

This is user’s permission problem that will be solved by method given below that worked for me.

step-1 : First open wp-config.php file of your wordpress installation folder.
step-2: Copy below code and paste it at the end of the wp-config.php file. 

define('FS_METHOD','direct');

step-3: Now open your droplet access console and enter root as username and its password.
step-4: Copy below code and paste it into access console where you have to specify your plugin directory path and then hit enter.

chmod 777 /yourwebsitename/public/wp-content/plugins/

Note: Replace your website name in the place of yourwebsitename.
Thank you.

Reply Report
kamaln7 February 22, 2014
Does running the following commands fix it? 
sudo chown username:www-data /var/www -R 

sudo chmod g+w /var/www -R
Reply Report
visiblexposure November 16, 2016

After you upload your files, you’ll want to make sure ownership permissions are set to Apache so that Wordrpess can update and/or install plugins without requiring FTP credentials. You can set permissions via SSH.

Single site hosting:

chown -R apache:apache /var/www/html

Multi site hosting:

chown -R apache:apache /var/www/

You may need to do this whenever uploading folders.

Source: http://www.visiblexposure.com/seomiami/configure-server-permissions-wordpress-not-require-ftp-plugin-installsupdates/

Reply Report
ricardo.parraga February 21, 2014
WordPress usually asks for your FTP credentials when it can't access the files directly on the root of your webserver. This is usually caused by PHP running as the apache user (mod_php or CGI) rather than the user that owns your WordPress files.

More info on the WordPress Forum:
http://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-install-asks-for-ftp-details
Reply Report
julien.le.coupanec March 22, 2014
Thank you Kamal! This works for me!
Reply Report
srini June 17, 2014
Kamal this is not working for me
Reply Report
suhaabi June 28, 2015

ryanginx that worked for me too. thx!!

Reply Report
nayzash September 3, 2015

Please, I run `sudo chown username:www-data /var/www -R
sudo chmod g+w /var/www -R but don’t work to me.“`

How should I replace the commands??? Sorry, I’m beginner…

I insert 

define('FS_METHOD', 'direct');

And too not works…

Reply Report
faizkhan January 27, 2017

define(‘FS_METHOD’, 'direct’);
This worked for me too.

Reply Report
marcamon2012 February 24, 2017

Thanks It’s works

Reply Report
summitk April 14, 2017

sudo chown username:www-data /var/www -R

Reply Report
dacluu03 December 21, 2017

you can login width root and Type the command: “`

sudo chown -R {path}

  • {path}: is path to your website, ex: /home/admin/domain/mywebsite.com ”`
Reply Report
  • radley May 28, 2018

    If you log in as root you do not need to type “sudo” as you will be root. I highly suggest not logging in as root to do this. The point of typing in “sudo” is to request root permissions for that 1 command..

    Reply Report
bacsitinhyeu May 17, 2018
[deleted]
Reply Report
jaspreetvirdi01 May 28, 2018

use this code , wordpress asking for ftp details because wordpress doesn’t have permission to write in your server.
use these two commands in terminal.

$sudo a2enmod rewrite
$sudo chown -R www-data /var/www

video guide [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGGWVUIvhnk](http://)

Reply Report
vosinhnam01 November 2, 2018
[deleted]
Reply Report
nuochoakichthich November 2, 2018
[deleted]
Reply Report
monstergel December 19, 2018
[deleted]
Reply Report
mdsatu November 9, 2019

Please try to use 755 for more safer.
Thanks for this excellent answer. I have done by 755.

Reply Report
Submit an Answer

Looking for something else?

Ask a new question Search for more help