Unable to perform automatic Wordpress Updates

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Unable to perform automatic Wordpress Updates

Hi everyone, for the past weeks I've been trying to solve that problem:

I cannot update my Wordpress websites the normal way, that is automaticly.

When a new wordpress version come sout I have to manually install it which is a pain when you have several wesbites to manage.

I want to make it work so that I just click the "update now" button and then everything is done by the server.

I have Mac OS X Server 'Mountain Lion' installed on my Mac Mini.

I found out that it might come from the Apache setup, and that I have to change the "Sharing & Permissions" for my SITES directory to allow Apache to makes the changes. (like so, check the bottom of the page: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2001881/correct-owner-group-permissions-for-a pache-2-site-files-folders-under-mac-os-x )

I have done that, but it still doesn't work... I stil lhave the "To perform the requested action, WordPress needs to access your web server. Please enter your FTP credentials to proceed. If you do not remember your credentials, you should contact your web host." when I try to update.

Does anyone already had this issue ? And found a solution to it ?

Posted on Apr 7, 2014 3:45 AM

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Answer 1

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,547 points

Apr 7, 2014 1:38 PM in response to Steo

I don't know about Wordpress specifically, but in general, in order for that sort of thing to work, not only the site files but also the enclosing folder must be writable by either user or group _www. The reason is that the updater may try to create a backup copy of the site alongside the update. So if you have a server-writable folder such as "WordPress" under Sites, the auto-update will fail because Sites is not writable. Rather than change the default permissions of Sites itself, I suggest you create another level in the file hierarchy, such as Sites/WordPress/Current or some such.

If the site is accessible from the Internet, this would be a very bad idea.

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Answer 2

Steo Author

Level 1

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Apr 17, 2014 2:05 AM in response to Linc Davis

Hi, thanks for the anwser.

So after performing many test (including the process you explained) I still have the issue.

But only for the most ancient installations, I've installed a new website on the server and the auto updates work fine. It's really mesmerizing... I'm going to try to reinstall a website which is affected by tgis issue and see if it solves my problem.

I'll keep this post up-to-date.

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Answer 3

Jan 13, 2015 6:17 AM in response to Steo

You may have gotten this to work by now, but I had no trouble following the tutorials on this site: https://codedmemes.com/lib/tag/wordpress/

Specifically, setting up a group for the _www users and making a user (webuseraccount or something like that) that is a member of the group. this allows you to work (using su) on files given permissions for that group. Wordpress needs files owned by the _www group.

If you'd like a script that takes care of this for you automatically, see the script here: https://github.com/MacMiniVault/Mac-Scripts/blob/master/mmvwordpress/mmvwordpres s-README.md

Or, follow the steps in the bash script one by one to learn how the permissions are being changed in order to get wordpress to work. ALSO, see the SSH2 article on the coded memes link above to make wordpress more secure for auto-updates.

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