Fixing “Missing a temporary folder” error on Wordpress 2.7 uploader

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Sun 01/04/2009

Recently I’ve found that some local (XAMPP powered) installations of Wordpress 2.7 on Linux and Mac return an odd error when user tries to upload a media by both the flash and the browser uploader.
The error raised is Missing a temporary folder as shown in the picture below:

Wordpress 2.7 missing temporary folder error

I’ve not yet dug the problem, anyway it seems related to misconfigured temporary paths in the local environment.

You can easily overcome this problem by editing the php.ini file located in etc/ folder, uncommenting the line upload_tmp_dir (by deleting the semi-colon “;”) and pointing the variable to a folder using an absolute path. In Linux possible steps are:

open a terminal
create a temporary folder for all apache tasks in your user folder and grant all right to all users:
```
mkdir wwwtmp && chmod 0777 wwwtmp
```
edit php.ini with your text editor and set the temporary folder (you must switch to root user)
```
su
vim /opt/lampp/etc/php.ini
upload_tmp_dir = /home/my_user/wwwtmp/
```
Remeber to remove preceding “;”
save the file (in vim type :wq an press enter) and restart xampp
```
/opt/lampp/./lampp restart
```

If everything went fine the error won’t be raised anymore.

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Tags: temporary folder, tmp folder, wordpress 2.7

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42 Responses to this post:

Storm says:

Wed 01/21/2009 at 6:45 am

Thanks. This was the article I needed!

Reply
Reader says:

Tue 01/27/2009 at 7:51 pm

Great! Thank you very much!
I always wanted to write in my site something like that. Can I take part of your post to my blog?
Of course, I will add backlink?

Regards, Timur I.

Reply
Dwight Jack says:

Tue 01/27/2009 at 11:15 pm

Pleased it worked, anyway i’ll also try to find a solution for those who don’t have direct access to php.ini…

@Reader: Sure you can use this post, and backlinks are welcome
bye!

Reply
Игорь says:

Fri 01/30/2009 at 6:26 am

Тоже процитирую Вашу статью у себя в блоге

Reply
HMTKSteve says:

Mon 02/02/2009 at 3:39 pm

I am having a strange problem. I have two wordpress sites on the same server. One has no problem uploading while the other gives me the missing temporary folder error.

Both use the same wp-content/uploads directory and all permissions match. Any idea why one would work and not the other?

On the one that does not work I also have a vbulletin forum and that software has no problem uploading.

Reply
Dwight Jack says:

Tue 02/03/2009 at 11:14 am

I don’t know if you already did this, but you should check the phpinfo() output and compare the upload dir value. It could be that domain’s conf file is overriding the php.ini configuration

Reply
E.Karnika Yashwant says:

Thu 02/05/2009 at 5:23 pm

Great one

Reply
sean says:

Fri 02/06/2009 at 6:43 am

Thanks a million, this did the trick.

Reply
LAM says:

Sat 02/07/2009 at 11:13 pm

Thanks. This worked great.

Reply
jussi says:

Sun 02/08/2009 at 8:25 pm

Thanks a lot! This saved me a lot of hairpulling.

Reply
Joe says:

Sat 02/14/2009 at 3:28 am

Love your work.

Reply
Migrare de la Wordpress 2.0 la 2.7 - VândPupăză says:

Mon 02/16/2009 at 11:48 am

[...] E un mesaj destul de vag si mi-a luat ceva timp sa inteleg ce se intampla. Aici afli cum sa iti setezi un folder temporar pentru Apache in php.ini: http://www.dwightjack.com/diary/2009/01/04/fixing-missing-a-temporary-folder-error-on-wordpress-27-u... [...]

Reply
notcaslon says:

Tue 02/17/2009 at 3:50 am

Sound like the exact problem i am having. I am un able to upload an exported WORDPRESS .xml file from one blog into another.

My error is:

Import WordPress

Sorry, there has been an error.

Missing a temporary folder.

The only issue with this fix is that its not written in plain english, that is some one with basic knowledge of php admin interface has no idea where to start, step by set with images would be great for people as above mentioned….

like me!

Reply
vc27 says:

Fri 02/20/2009 at 4:45 pm

way to be!!! Thanks a Lot ^_^!!!

Reply
Fang Jin says:

Fri 02/20/2009 at 8:38 pm

thanks man, it worked.

my blogger is fully functional locally on my leopard.

Reply
Alex says:

Tue 02/24/2009 at 3:22 pm

I love you, man!
Anyway it worked for me on a mac, but with one important variation:

upload_tmp_dir = /Users/YourUserName/wwwtmp

I know it seams stupid to tell, but it was not working for me because of that linux-path you posted….so, please, tell me I’m not the only stupid in the fu***ng WorldWideWeb!

Reply
- Finn Connell says:
  
  Wed 03/11/2009 at 3:22 pm
  
  I have uncommented php.ini and changed to
  
  upload_tmp_dir =” /Users/myusername/wwwtmp” but still “missing temporary folder”
  
  I am using Mac and xammp and wordpress Should I put in a different path in php.ini? what is the exact path? I created a folder called wwwtmp and I still have absolutely no luck.
  
  I also seemed to have sent the Terminal nuts as it now says
  ~
  ~
  “/opt/lampp/etc/php.ini” [New DIRECTORY]
  and no insertion point.
  
  Reply
  - Dwight Jack says:
    
    Tue 03/17/2009 at 8:50 pm
    
    Not really a Mac exteprt, anyway that folder seems ok.
    Did u try to write the folder without quotes:
    
    upload_tmp_dir =/Users/myusername/wwwtmp
    
    Reply
    - tinygod says:
      
      Sun 03/29/2009 at 6:38 pm
      
      i do it,but the system tell me:
      Unable to create directory /Applications/xampp/xamppfiles/htdocs/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/03. Is its parent directory writable by the server?
      can u help me?
      
      Reply
    - Prestige says:
      
      Wed 04/01/2009 at 8:17 pm
      
      Same problem here /Applications/xampp/xamppfiles/htdocs/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/03. Is its parent directory writable by the server?
      
      hope somebody posts a solution.
      
      Cheers!
      
      Reply
    - Dwight Jack says:
      
      Wed 04/01/2009 at 9:42 pm
      
      Hi, i’ve given the problem a quick look and i’ve found a long post about it in the WP support forum. Since i can’t reproduce the error, i suggest to try first of all this solution by sassymonkey. let me know if you find something to fix the issue!
      
      PS: if it doesn’t work and u don’t need to organize uploads in folder u can try unchecking the “Organize my uploads into month- and year-based folders” setting in Settings -> Miscellaneous
      
      Reply
DanielPK says:

Thu 02/26/2009 at 8:36 am

Hey, i can’t use this method, because i don’t have access to my “Server files” and i don’t have any php.ini file in my directory!! how can i solve this without access to those files??? please need help badly!!

Thanx in advance

Reply
- Dwight Jack says:
  
  Tue 03/17/2009 at 8:57 pm
  
  Hi, I’ve digged the problem and it seems that upload_tmp_dir directory is settable only via php.ini ’cause is a PHP_INI_SYSTEM var:
  
  http://www.php.net/manual/en/ini.core.php#ini.sect.file-uploads
  
  I think that the only way you can handle it is by asking support to your service provider
  
  Reply
bigo72’s » Trasformare il Mac Mini in un Server, con tanto di supporto PHP e MySQL: MAMP says:

Sat 02/28/2009 at 12:08 pm

[...] [...]

Reply
Markcc says:

Tue 03/17/2009 at 3:30 pm

Worked perfectly, I didnt use terminal I logged into WHM on server and adjusted the PHP ini file there. great! thank you

Reply
Get Geeky says:

Wed 03/25/2009 at 5:29 pm

Fix “Missing a temporary folder” in WordPress 2.7…

As I was writing my article about the installation process of Openfire, I’ve tried to upload a file but got an error message instead of my file
Because I wasn’t able to upload a file, I’ve done a quick google search and found this b…

Reply
Kamil Tatara says:

Sun 04/05/2009 at 9:26 am

Hi! Where I can find that php.ini file? in my root files or in wordpress folders? I have mac and i dont see any .ini files help

Reply
- Dwight Jack says:
  
  Mon 04/20/2009 at 7:49 pm
  
  on a MAC it’s located in:
  /Applications/XAMPP/etc/
  
  Reply
Solution for “Missing a temporary folder” Problem in Wordpress. | Top Stories you like says:

Thu 04/09/2009 at 11:07 am

[...] Here is the solution i got from Dwightjack. [...]

Reply
jobucks says:

Wed 04/15/2009 at 5:54 pm

where to find php.ini file, I can’t find it please help…

Reply
- Dwight Jack says:
  
  Mon 04/20/2009 at 7:48 pm
  
  Hi, it depends on your OS, anyway on a linux it’s usually in /opt/lampp/etc/ on MAC it’s in /Applications/XAMPP/etc/
  
  Reply
lisa says:

Sun 04/19/2009 at 9:20 am

i have no idea what all this means to be honest, i have the missing error problem, i’m on a mac!!!

Reply
- Dwight Jack says:
  
  Mon 04/20/2009 at 7:47 pm
  
  Hello,
  
  on a MAC you have to open and edit the file php.ini located in:
  /Applications/XAMPP/etc/
  
  Reply
  - Miri says:
    
    Tue 05/05/2009 at 9:02 pm
    
    I don’t have XXAMPP in my Applications folder.
    
    Also, this is about the 10th WP site I’ve built on my mac, and the first time it’s ever happened.
    
    Any suggestions here?
    
    Reply
Ndasmu » How do I delete windows update files? says:

Fri 04/24/2009 at 3:46 pm

[...] Fixing “Missing a temporary folder” error on Wordpress 2.7 … [...]

Reply
Millo says:

Thu 07/02/2009 at 4:00 pm

Hi!
I got the error. I’m using Windows XP and the blog is on a host right now.
Everytime I try to upload images, it reads:

/vservers/h267740wp/htdocs/wp-admin

I login to my FTP server, went to the ETC folder and access to the php.ini file.
The line goes like this:

upload_tmp_dir = /vservers/h282184wp/tmp /vservers/h267740wp/tmp

I just don’t know what I have to change. i’ve created “tmp” folders everywhere, but nothing works.

What do I have to change and where? what should I put on “Store uploads in this folder”???

Thanx a lot for your help

Reply
Dwight Jack says:

Thu 07/02/2009 at 9:06 pm

Hi,

i’d try setting the upload_tmp_dir like this (note the trailing slash):

upload_tmp_dir = /vservers/h267740wp/tmp/

Then remember you have to restart your web server. Usually you may issue a:
/etc/init.d/httpd restart

For the upload folder, usually the default is fine:
wp-content/uploads

You should try and check if /vservers/h267740wp/htdocs/wp-content/uploads it’s present and it’s writtable (like 775 in permission)

Let me know if it works, bye!

Reply
Jestin says:

Thu 07/30/2009 at 12:23 pm

Thks dud….
it help and o was able to rectify my trouble!

Thank U again

Reply
links for 2009-09-10 at adam hoyle presents suckmypixel says:

Thu 09/10/2009 at 1:30 pm

[...] Fixing “Missing a temporary folder” error on Wordpress 2.7 uploader :: Dwight Jack Diary (tags: wordpress php workaround apache bug) [...]

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Neill Jones says:

Fri 01/29/2010 at 1:33 am

Just a small point …

I changed the temp directory to /tmp which is available on some (if not all??) linux systems. So long as Apache has rw access to it it should work too. That way you don’t have to have a temporary directory added to your home directory.

Cheers

Neill

Reply
rosie says:

Mon 02/08/2010 at 7:04 pm

I also had this issue. I checked my web hosting and I was running with php version 4. The upgraded wordpress recommended version php 4.2 and above. Once I had moved to version php 5 this problem was resolved.

Reply
Lewis says:

Fri 02/19/2010 at 1:56 pm

Thanks guys. An upgrade to php 5 fixed my problem too.

Reply

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Fixing “Missing a temporary folder” error on Wordpress 2.7 uploader