How To Make WordPress Files Writable
Long overdue but better late then never I begin a mini-series where I will answer questions that my readers submitted via Survey I did last month. I apologize for delay and promise to make it worth for you.
Question 1: “How do I change the wp-config to writable so I can give myself ALTER rights”
This is actually quite common problem if your host has one of the “unfriendly” setups and it will also apply to people who have issues editing the Theme Files directly from WordPress Admin interface.
So…
How To Make File Writable?
If you haven’t got too far into using your host and having this issues I recommend you stop now and get yourself a host that is more friendly to WordPress. I use and recommend Hostgator as they are one of the few hosts that actually State Support for WordPress as an application! Plus with the way their hosting account compiled – you will never be faced with problem we are trying to solve right now.
But let’s assume that this is NOT an option and you still need to fix the problem…
Login into your cPanel and open your own favorite version of File Browser. Since what you will see will depend on version of cPanel skin that your host is using I’m going to show you one of the most basics:
Whichever one you will use doesn’t matter, as long as you can get the job done! Using file manager navigate to the file you need to make writable. In case of the question above wp-config.php which will be located in the root of the blog. If you only have one site on your host – generally it will be public_html or in some rare cases htdocs.
Once you locate the file you need to make writable – click on its name, as shown in image below to get the option to Change Permissions (right column options after you click on file name)
You will be presented with next screen once you click on Change Permissions, as seen below:
Screenshot above is from Hostgatorand Permissions you see provide a secure and yet editable file for you. Unfortunately many other hosts require that you change a file to a less secure combination.
Try first adjusting permissions to 666 or basically give Write access to the Group and World, making it writable by pretty much anyone but that should do the trick for you. Just don’t frget to change it back to 644 once done!
And if 666 fails to work for you – try changing the numerical combination to 777, which makes file really insecure but will work for you fr sure. Once again – change it back to 644 once done to avoid being exploited later!
Same procedure will apply to you if you attempt to edit your WordPress Theme files directly from WordPress admin interface and get presented with a message that you need to have ALTER permissions. It is a pain but you will have to navigate inside your theme folder and give each file you need to edit permissions as outlined above and then change it back when done to avoid being hacked!
Rule Of Thumb:
- Keep files permissions at 644 to have them secure
- Try setting permissions to 666 and see if this works
- If above fails – go with 777 and do what you need
- ALWAYS change permissions back to original combination. 644 should be on most hosts
- OPTIONAL: change your host to one that saves you from all the grief – Hostgator is one I recommend.
Disclaimer: some of the links mentioned within this post or posts they lead to are my affiliate links and I get compensated for recommending those products. However I never recommend something I didn’t believe in and welcome your questions and feedback.
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12 Responses to “How To Make WordPress Files Writable”
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[...] edit your blog, there is a great little tutorial available from Alex Sysosef of HowToSpotter.com on How To Make WordPress Files Writable. I notice that Alex recommends Host Gator as a WordPress friendly web hosting service provider [...]
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I don’t suppose that simply doing a
chmod -R 777 *
does the trick?
Barbara Ling, Virtual Coach´s last blog ..Delight Your Visitors – Easily Add Online Help for Free
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It does and also creates an extremely insecure blog
This is a good post Alex. I already know how to do this. But here’s my question and request, can you make a list of these things which and which should have the settings so and so???
Meaning, though I know this process, I really don’t exactly know what are the things that I should make writable. To expand my personal problem, I don’t know what files should have 666, 644, 777, file permission. Can you give the most common and recommended settings for the most common folder and files? Thanks!!! Perhaps you can do that in your next post.:) Thank you again a lot!!!
Vince´s last blog ..Bible Stories: Not Only For Kids, But For Adults Too
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I could but don’t have time for it – sorry, plus it is impossible to cover all scenarios. Here is good guide provided by Codex:
http://codex.wordpress.org/Hardening_WordPress
Alex
Good to see you writing some basic webmaster stuffs. You cover Wordpress & pure blogging stuffs lot less as you used to do before. You are concentrating more on marketing stuffs I think
aniroy1986´s last blog ..Block Unwanted AdSense Ads Based on Categories
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Actually I’m simply struggling with time. Explanation is lot simpler then you think. Also I’m a strong believer that pure blogging doesn’t exist – once you begin to use the blog more seriously – you need to know “other stuff”. I do try to share as much as I can based on time availability.
I mean Wordpress code tweaking, plugins & all those similar blogging stuffs. You don’t wite that much on those topics anymore, though your last blog post is about Wordpress security
And time…Yeah! time is so short! Even I don’t have time to manage my blogs. It’s really hard!
aniroy1986´s last blog ..No Renewal Charge For .CO.CC Domain For Non-commercial Use
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Another great post, Alex – and it’s importnat to note that those same changes can be made to the permissions using an FTP client with the CHMOD command – just be sure to put it back to 644 when finished as Alex recommends!
Oh, and further to aniroy1986’s comment above, I’m glad to see you covering marketing too, and especially using some affiliate marketing links. Wonder how people expect you to have the time to keep doling out so much powerful information for free if you’re not making something back from your time here?
Doug Champigny´s last blog ..Cost Per Action, CPA Affiliate Networks and Your Affiliate Marketing Efforts
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I wish I’d read this a while ago. I can’t even remember why I was changing the rights now, but anyway I changed them, changed what I needed to do, thought I’d leave them as changed in case I needed to do anything else, went to look at my site and my theme had gone. I had been changing a few things at the time so spent at least a day wondering what on earth was going on and resetting the theme up to find it still didn’t work. For some reason I then thought of the changed ‘write’ settings and so put them back to how they had been and heh presto the theme was back. What a nightmare it was though so I’d definitely reiterate your Rule of Thumb (4) – “ALWAYS change permissions back to original combination. 644 should be on most hosts.”
Cheers, Chloe
Chloe Alice Wilson´s last blog ..Battle Strikers – 10 Things Every Parent Needs To Know
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I fought with this for quite some time I found the easiest way to change these perms was via the shell using a “chown -R apache /var/www/*” or something to the effect.
Will Hall´s last blog ..Ensure Mail Delivery Everywhere
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Thanks for this tip Alex. I guess I never really thought to check my permissions on the config files. Thankfully, all of mine are already at 644. I also use Hostgator and I have NEVER had any problems.
Jim Clary´s last blog ..Article Marketing and Search Engine Optimization
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