Title: Unable to Update WordPress/Plugins
Last modified: May 1, 2017

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# Unable to Update WordPress/Plugins

 *  [thagley](https://wordpress.org/support/users/thagley/)
 * (@thagley)
 * [9 years, 1 month ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/unable-to-update-wordpressplugins/)
 * We have WordPress installed on a development server. Since the beginning, we 
   cannot update the WordPress installation or any plugins. we get a message that
   says “Unable to locate WordPress root directory. Installation Failed”.
 * I’ve searched online, including this forum, and I see that other people have 
   encountered similar problems, but their solutions have not worked for us. To 
   try and run the updates, I’m logging into my FTP user account on our server through
   the WordPress client. I have the permissions set according to this article:
 * [https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2014/05/proper-wordpress-filesystem-permissions-ownerships/#permissions-for-a-standard-wordpress-server-configuration](https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2014/05/proper-wordpress-filesystem-permissions-ownerships/#permissions-for-a-standard-wordpress-server-configuration)
 * And I have myself set to be the owner of all the WordPress files starting at 
   var/www/wordpress. Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.

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

 *  [abletec](https://wordpress.org/support/users/abletec/)
 * (@abletec)
 * [9 years, 1 month ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/unable-to-update-wordpressplugins/#post-9086049)
 * Hello thagley & welcome. The WordPress files need to be run by the webserver.
   Often that’s called www-data or similar. Make yourself a member of that group,
   then change ownership to your username:webservergroup & see if that helps. Those
   names are placeholders, as I’m sure you’re aware.
 * Please let us know if that helps or not.
 *  Thread Starter [thagley](https://wordpress.org/support/users/thagley/)
 * (@thagley)
 * [9 years, 1 month ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/unable-to-update-wordpressplugins/#post-9089124)
 * I tried doing what you suggested and I’m still having the same problem. I tried
   your suggestion with both the ‘www’ and ‘apache’ groups.

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

The topic ‘Unable to Update WordPress/Plugins’ is closed to new replies.

 * In: [Fixing WordPress](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/how-to-and-troubleshooting/)
 * 2 replies
 * 2 participants
 * Last reply from: [thagley](https://wordpress.org/support/users/thagley/)
 * Last activity: [9 years, 1 month ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/unable-to-update-wordpressplugins/#post-9089124)
 * Status: not resolved

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