Title: [Plugin: Google XML Sitemaps] Problem Writing File Last modified: August 19, 2016 --- # [Plugin: Google XML Sitemaps] Problem Writing File * [wilsoncowden](https://wordpress.org/support/users/wilsoncowden/) * (@wilsoncowden) * [17 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-google-xml-sitemaps-problem-writing-file/) * I have set everything up and the sitemap.xml and sitemap.xml.gz are both created ans set at 777. When I open the Configuration I get the errors below. I am using Version 2.7 – Can anyone advise please. * # There was a problem writing your sitemap file. Make sure the file exists and is writable. Learn more # There was a problem writing your zipped sitemap file. Make sure the file exists and is writable. Learn more Viewing 14 replies - 1 through 14 (of 14 total) * [scoophk](https://wordpress.org/support/users/scoophk/) * (@scoophk) * [17 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-google-xml-sitemaps-problem-writing-file/#post-960176) * Me too. Had originally forgotten to add the .xml files – now cannot get rid of the two lines of warning messages and back to the ‘generate sitemap’link. * Have deactivated and reactivated – same results – the same warning are on the options page…. * Thanks * [oceanofp](https://wordpress.org/support/users/oceanofp/) * (@oceanofp) * [17 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-google-xml-sitemaps-problem-writing-file/#post-960187) * I get the same message but only with my sitemap.xml.gz file. My sitemap.xml file gets rebuilt without any problems. * Sure would be nice if someone could respond with a solution to this. I didn’t find any information about it on the plugin’s author page either. * I had both files at permissions 777. I dropped the gz file down to 774 after the error, but that didn’t correct the problem either. * [alloneinvestments](https://wordpress.org/support/users/alloneinvestments/) * (@alloneinvestments) * [17 years ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-google-xml-sitemaps-problem-writing-file/#post-960234) * Yes, I get the same error messages. I’ve changed my permissions to 777 on both of the files: * When I open the Configuration I get the errors below. I am using Version 2.7. * # There was a problem writing your sitemap file. Make sure the file exists and is writable. Learn more # There was a problem writing your zipped sitemap file. Make sure the file exists and is writable. Learn more * Any help you could give me on this would be so appreciated. Thanks! * [tambreet](https://wordpress.org/support/users/tambreet/) * (@tambreet) * [17 years ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-google-xml-sitemaps-problem-writing-file/#post-960235) * Hi. I had this exact problem and it turned out that the plug-in was trying to write the sitemap file to a different directory than the root of my blog (it was trying to put them in Apache’s root). * If you click on the “Debug function” link and then search for sitemap.xml on that page, you should be able to see what path it’s trying to write the sitemap. xml files to. * [imann](https://wordpress.org/support/users/imann/) * (@imann) * [16 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-google-xml-sitemaps-problem-writing-file/#post-960238) * Hello All * I found if you set file ‘sitemap.xml.gz’ to 666 and set ‘sitemap.xml’ to 777 this work for me. 🙂 * [prashantji](https://wordpress.org/support/users/prashantji/) * (@prashantji) * [16 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-google-xml-sitemaps-problem-writing-file/#post-960249) * Yes, I get the same error messages. I’ve changed my permissions to 777 on both of the files: * When I open the Configuration I get the errors below. I am using Version 2.7. * # There was a problem writing your sitemap file. Make sure the file exists and is writable. Learn more # There was a problem writing your zipped sitemap file. Make sure the file exists and is writable. Learn more * Any help you could give me on this would be so appreciated. Thanks! * [Dave333](https://wordpress.org/support/users/dave333/) * (@dave333) * [16 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-google-xml-sitemaps-problem-writing-file/#post-960250) * I’ve never been able to get this plug in to work. I also get the following message: * # There was a problem writing your sitemap file. Make sure the file exists and is writable. Learn more # There was a problem writing your zipped sitemap file. Make sure the file exists and is writable. Learn more * I tried all the suggestions in this string and other strings. I have made both files 777. I have tried moving both files to the root of my blog, then the root of my website, and a range of other places. Finally, I deleted the files and made my blog folder 777 as instructed to in the [Google Sitemaps FAQ (Sitemap Issues And Errors)](http://www.arnebrachhold.de/2006/04/07/google-sitemaps-faq-sitemap-issues-errors-and-problems/?utm_source=wp-wm&utm_medium=install&utm_content=help-files#P28_iscorr) page and then tried to generate the sitemap. * None of these efforts worked so I removed the plugin and made my folders secure again as any folder or file set at 777 is a disaster waiting to happen. * If someone comes up with a real solution then I’ll reinstall it and try again. * [sancheze](https://wordpress.org/support/users/sancheze/) * (@sancheze) * [16 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-google-xml-sitemaps-problem-writing-file/#post-960252) * **I finally tried something that worked for me!!!** I found the plugin was considering all urls without www. I changed my general settings so both wordpress and blog addresses had www. After logging in again in my new www admin url, executed the pluging and now is working fine. * Good luck! * [Dave333](https://wordpress.org/support/users/dave333/) * (@dave333) * [16 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-google-xml-sitemaps-problem-writing-file/#post-960253) * [@sancheze](https://wordpress.org/support/users/sancheze/), * What was the problem you were having? Was it that it was not writing the sitemap files? * I had a look at my general settings and noticed that both were already set it www. So that is not what is causing the plugin to fail on my blog. * Is a site map really necessary? The Search Engines don’t seem to have a problem indexing all my blog’s pages. * [lendertech](https://wordpress.org/support/users/lendertech/) * (@lendertech) * [16 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-google-xml-sitemaps-problem-writing-file/#post-960259) * sanchez was right. I was having the same problem even though I had built 100 + WordPress sites. I tried all the usual fixes but nothing worked until I went in to the blog general settings and changed the blog address and wordpress files address to www. * Thanks sanchez! * [dablufox](https://wordpress.org/support/users/dablufox/) * (@dablufox) * [16 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-google-xml-sitemaps-problem-writing-file/#post-960264) * This is a really stupid problem to have. What can be the cause to the problem is that your XML plugin is trying to write to the wrong directory. * In this case you have to check custom location for your sitemap and put in the absolute path to your sitemap which looks something like this * /home/”accountname”/public_html/sitemap.xml * and then the complete URL of the sitemap below it such as * [http://www.yourhostingserverdomain.com/sitemap.xml](http://www.yourhostingserverdomain.com/sitemap.xml) * You would think the person who created the plugin would have this info readily available. * [powpowsincow](https://wordpress.org/support/users/powpowsincow/) * (@powpowsincow) * [16 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-google-xml-sitemaps-problem-writing-file/#post-960265) * I have tried all suggestions here, and I still get the same errors * # There was a problem writing your sitemap file. Make sure the file exists and is writable. Learn more # There was a problem writing your zipped sitemap file. Make sure the file exists and is writable. Learn more * but they are followed by.. * The building process took about 0.01 seconds to complete and used 15.5 MB of memory. * Does this mean its working and the error messages are wrong? * On the same token I get a similar error message with when trying to change my permakink to a Custom Structure /%postname%/ * “If the root directory of your site were writable, we could do this automatically, but it isn’t so this is the url rewrite rule you should have in your web.config file. Create a new file, called web.config in the root directory of your site.” * And they don’t work. * Any help would be great * thanks George * [Luckyjj](https://wordpress.org/support/users/luckyjj/) * (@luckyjj) * [16 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-google-xml-sitemaps-problem-writing-file/#post-960266) * Hi George, I had exactly the same issues: * To solve the issue you need to make a NEW sitemap.xml and a NEW sitemap.xml.gz using Notepad. Just open notepad and save as each file named as above. * Upload the new files and replace current files. Change them so so they can be read, write, execute for owners and users. * Go back into WP and at the bottom of the XML Sitemap page select RESET OPTIONS. This should fix both sets of issue. I have just done it and all is now working fine. * [Luckyjj](https://wordpress.org/support/users/luckyjj/) * (@luckyjj) * [16 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-google-xml-sitemaps-problem-writing-file/#post-960267) * Hi George, * It also fixes this: * On the same token I get a similar error message with when trying to change my permakink to a Custom Structure /%postname%/ Viewing 14 replies - 1 through 14 (of 14 total) The topic ‘[Plugin: Google XML Sitemaps] Problem Writing File’ is closed to new replies. * 14 replies * 13 participants * Last reply from: [Luckyjj](https://wordpress.org/support/users/luckyjj/) * Last activity: [16 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-google-xml-sitemaps-problem-writing-file/#post-960267) * Status: not resolved ## Topics ### Topics with no replies ### Non-support topics ### Resolved topics ### Unresolved topics ### All topics