First, please don’t use WordPress built-in tools for upgrading your WordPress installation – we take care of that for all users automatically, soon after new releases become available.

Plugins and themes can be added, upgraded, edited or deleted directly from within the WordPress Dashboard IF you add the following line to your wp-config.php file:

define('FS_METHOD', 'direct');

If you need a hand, ask us and we’ll take care of it for you. If you prefer to stick with the “old” FTP method, see the notes below.

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If you want to use WordPress built-in tools for upgrading plugins, you may encounter an error “Can’t find content directory.” This is because WordPress is looking for a wp-content directory relative to the directory “home” you log into. If you give WordPress your master credentials, the “home” for that login is /home/username, and there is no wp-content directory there. Your wp-content directory actually lives at /home/username/public_html/wp-content, assuming your site is installed at the root of the domain.

WordPress makes no accommodation for this problem. The only solution is to not use your master credentials when updating plugins. Instead, use the credentials of an actual FTP account (you can add FTP accounts from your cPanel). When you create the FTP account, set its document root to “public_html”, i.e. the document root for your blog or site. If you then give those credentials to WordPress when updating plugins, the system will work.

However: We personally feel it’s easier to simply upgrade your plugins via FTP, and not use the WordPress built-in tools at all.

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