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Having problems accessing FTP to update plugins/themes!

Greetings Tech Support,

I'm at a stand still currently with our site trying to update all the plugins and themes in the dashboard. We have an installation of WordPress with Multi-Site installed on Amazon AWS and when trying to install or update anything from the dashboard were taken to the "Failed to connect to FTP Server" page. Is there anything we can do to resolve this issue within WordPress, because the other solution requires us to update every plugin/theme manually which will be a big headache.

Fredrick Turner

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Mon, 4 Jan 2016 19:36:34
  • Michael Bissett
    • Recruit

    Hey @fturner19, Michael here! :slight_smile:

    First off, how is FTP set up on your instance? What’s the port that’s open, is it 21, or something else?

    I ask because we can insert these defines into your site’s wp-config.php (above the “That’s all, stop editing!” line) to help take care of that problem:

    define( 'FS_METHOD', 'direct' );
    
define( 'FTP_HOST', 'ftp.example.org' );
    
define( 'FTP_USER', 'username' );
    
define( 'FTP_PASS', 'password' );

    (entering your details into the FTP_HOST, FTP_USER & FTP_PASS defines, replacing what’s there)

    But if you happen to have a different FTP port set up (that isn’t 21 or 22), then you’ll want to specify it in the FTP_HOST define, like this:

    define( 'FTP_HOST', 'ftp.example.org:128' );

    Also, what are the permissions for the plugins & themes folders, are they set to 755? Or are they set to something else?

    (you can learn more about file permissions over here, FYI)

    Please advise,

    Michael