Title: Continued “temp-write-test” File Issue
Last modified: November 21, 2019

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# Continued “temp-write-test” File Issue

 *  [livingmiracles](https://wordpress.org/support/users/livingmiracles/)
 * (@livingmiracles)
 * [6 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/continued-temp-write-test-file-issue/)
 * Hello,
 * We’re looking for support with this recent occurrence of “temp-write-test” files
   getting populated/triggered in the /wp-content folders on several of our sites.
   The files are completely empty (0 bytes).
 * When this first started happening a little over a month ago, it was recommended
   to us by our hosting provider (SiteGround) to adjust our folder permissions and
   to make sure the **WP Filesystem API Method** is showing “direct.” We adjusted
   the folder permissions for all our sites and this issue stopped until a little
   less than a week ago and we don’t understand or know why. Now it seems to be 
   slowing occurring again.
 * This is an issue for us because we use a security plugin on all our sites called,“
   BulletProof Security Pro.” This plugin scans our site files at a certain time
   interval, using crons, and quarantines any files that are different. So this 
   can be particularly disruptive for us since these “temp-write-test” files are
   dynamic files, which means they can’t be excluded from these scans, and get quarantined
   each time they get populated/triggered. Then, we have to address the issue by
   deleting them every time they are generated. Whereas ideally, we would want to
   reduce these false positives (by not having these files get generated anymore)
   and only be alerted to quarantined files that could pose a legitimate “threat”
   to our site.
 * We have contacted our hosting provider and BulletProof Security Pro for support
   and taken it as far as we could with them but the issue is still not resolved.
   
   If it helps with the narrowing down of the issue, as we read in another forum
   post, we do seem to be able to update and install new plugins and themes without
   any issues from what we’ve noticed.
 * Is there anything that we can do to resolve this issue? Or are there other pieces
   of information that would be helpful to know to troubleshoot this?
 * Thank you,
    Living Miracles

Viewing 2 replies - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)

 *  [ikaring](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ikaring/)
 * (@ikaring)
 * [6 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/continued-temp-write-test-file-issue/#post-12162233)
 * Hello.
    Try adding the following line in your functions.php: `define('FS_METHOD','
   direct');`
 * This page might be describing your problem, I guess.
 * [https://wordpress.stackexchange.com/questions/23800/why-does-wordpress-require-a-ftp-server-to-be-running-on-the-webserver-to-transf/192085#192085](https://wordpress.stackexchange.com/questions/23800/why-does-wordpress-require-a-ftp-server-to-be-running-on-the-webserver-to-transf/192085#192085)
 * For FS_METHOD, check out here:
    [https://wordpress.org/support/article/editing-wp-config-php/#wordpress-upgrade-constants](https://wordpress.org/support/article/editing-wp-config-php/#wordpress-upgrade-constants)
 *  [JNashHawkins](https://wordpress.org/support/users/jnashhawkins/)
 * (@jnashhawkins)
 * [6 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/continued-temp-write-test-file-issue/#post-12162253)
 * I don’t know much about SiteGround but I think they wanted you to add that
 * `define('FS_METHOD', 'direct');`
 * to the wp-config.php file which may stop that ‘file system method’ testing but
   there’s something about a PHP vulnerability if the Apache user runs the PHP also
   across the server. You might want to try that fix and have a chat with your web
   host about that vulnerability also.

Viewing 2 replies - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)

The topic ‘Continued “temp-write-test” File Issue’ is closed to new replies.

## Tags

 * [Folder Permissions](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/folder-permissions/)

 * In: [Fixing WordPress](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/how-to-and-troubleshooting/)
 * 2 replies
 * 3 participants
 * Last reply from: [JNashHawkins](https://wordpress.org/support/users/jnashhawkins/)
 * Last activity: [6 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/continued-temp-write-test-file-issue/#post-12162253)
 * Status: not resolved

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