Title: Error During Update
Last modified: May 4, 2018

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# Error During Update

 *  Resolved [jentle1gmail.com](https://wordpress.org/support/users/jentle1gmailcom/)
 * (@jentle1gmailcom)
 * [8 years, 1 month ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/error-during-update-2/)
 * Hi.
    I keep getting this message when trying to update the plugin.
 * “Update Failed: The update cannot be installed because we will be unable to copy
   some files. This is usually due to inconsistent file permissions.”
 * How do I remedy this?
 * Thanks.
    Craig Hitchens

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)

 *  [wfalaa](https://wordpress.org/support/users/wfalaa/)
 * (@wfalaa)
 * [8 years, 1 month ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/error-during-update-2/#post-10264587)
 * Hi Craig,
 * The first thing to check here is file/directory permissions, you can check that
   yourself or ask your hosting provider to do that for you, two things you need
   to check here specifically:
    – Files/Folders on your website have the correct
   file permissions as [recommended](https://codex.wordpress.org/Hardening_WordPress#File_Permissions)
   by WordPress team. – Make sure the owner of the files/folders is the same user
   running the web server, it’s “www-data” for example in case you are running the
   default Apache web server on Ubuntu OS.
 * Thanks.
 *  Thread Starter [jentle1gmail.com](https://wordpress.org/support/users/jentle1gmailcom/)
 * (@jentle1gmailcom)
 * [8 years ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/error-during-update-2/#post-10276506)
 * Hi.
    Permissions are all set to 755 on wp-content and plugins folders. All previous
   updates of Wordfence have gone ahead with out a problem. My server is Apache 
   2.4.33 Linux operating system.
 * The actual message displayed is this:
    An error occurred while updating Wordfence
   Security: The update cannot be installed because we will be unable to copy some
   files. This is usually due to inconsistent file permissions. lib/.htaccess.old,
   models/.htaccess.old, views/.htaccess.old
 * Any suggestions?
 * Need this to work or I will just remove the plugin and use something else.
 * Cheers.
    Craig
    -  This reply was modified 8 years ago by [jentle1gmail.com](https://wordpress.org/support/users/jentle1gmailcom/).
 *  [wfalaa](https://wordpress.org/support/users/wfalaa/)
 * (@wfalaa)
 * [8 years ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/error-during-update-2/#post-10277851)
 * Hi Craig,
 * There shouldn’t be “.htaccess.old” files under these directories mentioned, and
   they seem to be created with another owner or insufficient permissions to get
   them deleted through the update process. Perhaps another plugin created those
   copies, I wonder if you have W3 Total Cache plugin installed?
 * Anyway, I’m pretty sure if you deleted these files the update will run just fine,
   you can do that by connecting to your website via sFTP or SSH. Also, deleting
   the whole plugin folder via FTP then reinstall the plugin again from WordPress
   Dashboard will install the latest version for you.
 * Thanks.

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)

The topic ‘Error During Update’ is closed to new replies.

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 * 3 replies
 * 2 participants
 * Last reply from: [wfalaa](https://wordpress.org/support/users/wfalaa/)
 * Last activity: [8 years ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/error-during-update-2/#post-10277851)
 * Status: resolved