Are you facing image upload issues on your WordPress website? For most beginners, image upload errors can be quite confusing because they can appear without you doing anything different.
Failure to upload images is one of the most common image issues in WordPress. Luckily, it is quite easy to fix, and you can do it yourself.
In this article, we will show you how to easily fix the image upload issue in WordPress. We will also explain what causes this issue, and how you can prevent it in the future.
What Causes The Image Upload Issue in WordPress
The image upload issue in WordPress is typically caused by incorrect file permissions. Your WordPress files are stored on your web hosting server and need specific file and directory permissions to work.
Wrong file permissions prevent WordPress from reading or uploading file on the hosting server. You may get the following error when uploading image file:
‘Unable to create directory wp-content/uploads/2019/04. Is its parent directory writable by the server?’
Another sign of this issue is that your images may disappear from the media library.
My site was working fine before? Who changed the file permissions?
This could happen due to a number of reasons. A misconfiguration on your shared hosting server can sometimes change those permissions without you doing anything.
For example, your web hosting provider ran an upgrade which unexpectedly changed file permissions.
If everything else is working fine on your website, then you can simply apply the correct file permissions to fix the image upload issue.
That being said, let’s take a look at how to set correct file permissions to fix image upload issues in WordPress.
Fixing Image Upload Issue in WordPress
You will need to use an FTP client to change file permissions.
First, connect to your website via FTP and then go to /wp-content/ folder. Inside, you’ll find the uploads folder, which is where WordPress stores all your media uploads including images.
Now right click on the uploads directory and then select File Permissions.
This will bring up the file permissions dialog box.
First, you will need to set file permissions for the uploads directory and all the subdirectories inside it to 744.
To do that, enter 744 in the numeric value box, and then check the box next to Recurse into subdirectories option. Now click on the ‘Apply to directories only’ radio button.
Click on the OK button to apply these changes. Your FTP client will now start applying file permissions to the directories.
Note: If setting directory permissions to 744 does not seem to solve your problem, then try 755.
In the next step, you will need to set file permissions for all the files in the uploads directory.
To do that, right click on uploads directory and select file permissions. In the file permissions dialog box, change the numeric value to 644.
Check the box next to Recurse into subdirectories. Lastly, you need to click on ‘Apply to files only’ radio button. Click on the OK button to apply these changes.
The FTP client will now change the permissions for all files inside the uploads folder. Once it is done, you can go back to your WordPress admin area and try uploading images again.
Note: if you don’t know how to use a FTP client, then you can also use the file manager provided by your WordPress hosting company. Since the screenshots will vary from each host, you will need to talk to their support to find instructions.
We hope this article helped you fix the image upload issue in WordPress. You may also want to see our article on how to optimize image SEO to get more organic traffic to your website.
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Thank You, 755 worked but 744 doesnt for folders, triple checked
It can vary depending on the issue and host, 744 is a backup to check
I’m encountering the same issue only the fix that is suggested is not working. Is there something else that can be done?
You would likely want to reach out to your hosting provider for them to take a look.
First try to check PHP interpreter version on your server. If it 7.4 – this may cause problems. Change it to 7.3.
Thank you for sharing that for some users who may be stuck with this error, for beginners we recommend reaching out to their hosting provider for checking if that is an issue.
Images to my wordpress site seem to upload correctly but then then disappear and an icon for broken image link appears. In the media library the image shows as a gray block. If I try to edit the image then I can see the image but when I save it again it’s gray again. I checked my permissions and the are set to 755.
You may want to try updating to 744 and if that does not work, reach out to your hosting provider and they can normally assist.
Hi ,do we do it with out FTP
Some hosting providers have a file manager that acts as an FTP but it would depend on your host for what is available.
I’m using localhost, cannot see the file permissions option when i right click
For local installations, you would right-click the folder and go under Properties>Security to change the permissions.
Hello
FTP permissions are fine, when I try to upload, the original file goes to the FTP Uploads folder, but WordPress does not recognize it and displays error on upload, try again later
Any tips?
By default, WordPress would not include FTP’d files in the media library. It would depend on the specific error. If the default upload method is what is causing the error then you would want to go through the troubleshooting steps in our guide below:
https://www.wpbeginner.com/beginners-guide/beginners-guide-to-troubleshooting-wordpress-errors-step-by-step/
You missed the easiest fix of all. Close WordPress and open it back up again.
For some, that may be a solution but that is sadly, rarely the solution for this specific issue.
”Unexpected response from the server. The file may have been uploaded successfully. Check in the Media Library or reload the page.”
I keep getting the above error whenever I try to upload an image to my newly installed WordPress.
Please advise on how to solve it. Thank you.
There are a few possible reasons for that error message, we would recommend going through our troubleshooting steps here: https://www.wpbeginner.com/beginners-guide/beginners-guide-to-troubleshooting-wordpress-errors-step-by-step/
I’m not sure this will solve my problem. I have an educational website and we give away free books and educational materials. Recently I uploaded a PDF document (a chart) into my library, put it in 2 of my web pages, and created the link to open it. That was fine, but later, I decided to improve the document, took it off, recreated it and uploaded it again to the library. The original document was deleted completely from my own files, but when I upload it to my website it comes up with the OLD document. Somehow the “delete permanently” feature within the library is NOT actually deleting it. HELP!
You may want to ensure you cleared any caching for your site as that is the most common reason for that issue, we have a guide you can follow here:
https://www.wpbeginner.com/beginners-guide/how-to-clear-your-cache-in-wordpress/
I just wanted to say, thank you so much for all the help you provide. I sometimes experience odd occurrences on my website, and when I Google the problem, your website always seems to simply answer my concerns.
Keep up the excellent work!
You’re welcome, glad our guides can be helpful
What URL do I type in when connecting via the FTP client? The actual domain that visitors use or my wordpress URL?
That can vary based on your host, if your normal domain does not work you would want to check with your hosting provider
Hurray, I did it just change URL from Setting-General than change “WordPress Address (URL) and Site Address (URL)” set both http to https and the issue has been resolved.
Glad our recommendation could help
Hello anybody know how to fix getting your images to load the the Media Library? the files are located in the correct place on my server wp content / uploads. and i know my permissions are correcgt 755 and 0644 for the individual files.
if i try to drag or load files from scratch into the Media Library Add New loader I always get this error- ” could not insert post into the database” thanks.
You may want to ensure there are no special characters in your file name and you’ve tried increasing the maximum upload size for possible reasons.
My photo’s that I am trying to upload are not even uploading. It is currently stuck on the download bar and I don’t know how to up the uploading process or how to stop it and try again. Please help. We are on a time crunch.
Thank you.
The most common other reason for not being able to upload an image would be fixed using the method in our article here: https://www.wpbeginner.com/wp-tutorials/how-to-fix-the-http-image-upload-error-in-wordpress/
publishing issue in wordpress.
no page, post is publishing in wordpress
It would depend on if you are receiving an error message or not. For starting out, you would want to take a look at our troubleshooting article here: https://www.wpbeginner.com/beginners-guide/beginners-guide-to-troubleshooting-wordpress-errors-step-by-step/
New image uploaded always has 640 permission. And if I access image with 640 permission, it will return 404. But if I change it to 644, I can access the image.
Is 640 the correct permission for image uploaded? Or is it 644?
644 are the correct permissions
I’m having a problem sizing my photos for a wordpress site and getting them to display correctly. I’ve resized the images several times to smaller, but they still appear showing only portion of the image and not the full image – even though I have also tried resizing in the edit section of the gallery! How do I get them to load in the full size if the image is a suitable size and resolution!
When adding the image to a post/page you may want to check for the dropdown in the bottom right stating the size and set it to the full size for your image.
Hi. When I upload a rectangular photo it uploads as a square cutting off most of the image. Any suggestions? Thank you!
Your theme may be generating a new image size, you may want to check under Settings>Media to see if you’ve enabled image cropping there.
I’m having an issue when in editing mode upon uploading product images in gallery. I uploaded some images for a product gallery with no issues then I went to upload new ones for another product. I select the images/upload into gallery but instead of uploading the new ones I selected it uploads the ones from the previous upload.. Ctrl+F5, delete cookies, system restart… nothing. Still the same issue.
Any ideas?
It sounds like you would want to reach out to the support for the plugin you are using for your products to ensure that it is not a hiccup with the plugin itself.
Thanks a lot!
You continue to bring the clear and direct fixes
You’re welcome, glad our articles can help
Thank you very much! This solved my problem in my site
Hi everyone,
I am scratching my head on this current issue with WordPress 5.0 logo uploading. The image file (59K) will upload to media no problem, but it WILL NOT show on the page, instead it would show my icon file instead. I don’t understand. I’ve tried resizing the size to 100px to no prevail.
Could this be the theme fault? I am using OceanWP. I tried contacting my host and they recommend getting my logo designer to optimise it for WP5.0. Which doesn’t make sense. if anyone could please give me any leads to this issue. Thank you!
I am still struggling to come to terms with WP.
Please if I want my readers to …Read More » on a page, what widget do I use?
Hello,
The read more link appears next to excerpts (summary) of a blog post. For that you will need to set them up. See our beginner’s guide on how to set up excerpts in WordPress .
Thank you, i tried many things on how to fix the problem but none worked until i tried your solution by changing the file permission as shown. Your solution to the problem worked for me. Again, a big thank you.
Hi all,
Thanks for all your information and suggestions.
I tried everything:
– the 755,744,744 and 655 in filezilla. Nothing worked.
– Media, upload etc. Also nothing.
All of a sudden I could upload two images. And afterwards I tried the upload a 3rd image and now I am stuck with the same problem again. Every time I try to upload any image i get ‘ http-error’.
Does anybody have some last advice?
Help a no-knowledge-of-websitebuilding-person out!
Thanks in advance!
I have an issue that doesn’t seem to be addressed anywhere – there is no “Media” folder in my WordPress menu and I just can not figure out why and how to access it.
I am just starting my blog and not even uploaded my theme yet. Any idea what could be the reason behind that?
Thank you!
i can not upload a media file to my WordPress
My permissions are 755 but unable to upload images
hi , how can I solve this problem. of inserting image in post, , after uploading pic. when I click on insert into post nothing happens
Hi Johaness,
We are unsure what may be causing this issue. Please try steps mentioned in our WordPress troubleshooting guide to find out what’s causing this issue.
Try clicking ‘file url’ button first it fetchs url, then click insert into post. Hope it works for you.
I tried this initially with 744. This stopped any images appearing at all for me on either wp-admin or my live website. Which was worrying and panic inducing!
So then tried 755, and images are appearing again on my live website. Which is a relief.
Still having exactly the same issue with uploading images though. Getting ‘http error’.
Same problem here. for images over a certain size. They do appear in the media library but with no thumbnail and can’t be edited. Small images do work however.
When i go for 744 all thumbnail are shown but uploading error remain
but when i go for 755 thumbnail gone but uploading error solved..
Now what shall i do.
Hi Joy,
Please ask your hosting provider, they can also fix directory permissions issue for you.
Thanks for reply
Today i checked also some images are uploaded but some images shown error in uploading
Thanks Edo, I worked it out.
Hi,
I did my way, solved very well
Go to your hosting cPanel, go to PHP Version in the Software block..
Go to PHP Options in the right button
Edit to be like this :
:
memory_limit 1024M
post_max_size 128M
upload_max_filesize 64M
Then back to cPanel frontpage
Go to ModSecurity in the Security section
Change to Disable for your domain.
VOILAA !!!!
Regards
Let me know your success story
Thanks a bunch dude, nothing else worked, but this PHP options setting worked for me.
If the issue is cropping up after transferring a site to a new domain this works for me:
open the Settings menu, and select Media. If you see a file path with a textbox displaying where the files should be uploaded to, delete the text in the file path textbox, and click Save Changes once you’re done.
No try uploading an image, should work fine.
Thanks – that solved my problem. The server path had somehow been defined in Settings > Media. Removed it and replaced with the default wp-content/uploads, saved and that fixed it
Hi Tom,
I just wanted to say thank you as well. Your post saved me a lot of grief! I used a plugin to migrate a site to a new provider. The tool is excellent, but in this instance were so many files in my uploads directory that I needed to exclude images and move them separately via ftp. I spent an hour carefully checking file permissions and ownership in the WordPress uploads directory until I came across your post. Sure enough, nder “Settings / Media” there was a hardcoded path valid only with my old hosting provider. Great post!
Thank you very much. My problem was same and your solution was great
Thank you, thank you, thank you!! This happened when I migrated this site. Hasn’t happened to any of the other sites I’ve migrated, but the Settings>Media path was exactly the problem.
Thank you soooo much!
Changing folder permissions to 755 resolved the issue for me. Thank you!
I am facing a very basic problem, i tried many theme but when i add an element on a fresh new page it show the default content of (pagename and the recent post widget is visible and other widgets are behind my element i.e Slider) behind my slider or hero image Guyz PLz Help me
I must have read two dozen different fixes fir this image error thing, then found a solution that s far, far easier than anything else I have read. In fact here’s the solution in three words: Change your browser.
Yep, that’s all I did. I’ve tried lots of different “solutions” with no joy, then just by chance I was working on a different computer one day, using Opera instead of Chrome (I’ve had the error with IE, Edge, Firefox etc. too) and I had no problem uploading my images. I’ve been using Opera for the purpose for months now and never had the HTTP error since.
I’m not saying it will work for every occurrence but it’s got to be worth a try!
Wow! worked for me! Safari -> Chrome on OSX
I have problem ..I want somebody help me please..
Some content of website like footer content are not displayed on chrome but it displayed on other web browser.I also change the Setting of chrome but its not work .So please help me…
I have my old pictures in wordpress.
But i’m unable to upload new images.
Everytime i got this message….” Unable to create directory uploads/2017/09. Is its parent directory writable by the server”
I tried all
744
755
644
but three of them didn’t works for me
please tell any suggestion ?
Me too! I even thought I fixed the problem by increasing the upload size through the Media section under Settings and nope! You know what got it to work?
Resizing my freaking images. Silly me thought I was doing that through the settings on WordPress, but nope!
I have a Mac and I resized my large images to 1920×1080 or less and made sure my Media Settings allowed that and sure enough, it works! All those hours of frustration… *sigh* I hope that helps!
I have no problem with inserting photos by doing so inside a paragraph and wraping text around it. But I cannot insert a larger photo in an area free of a paragraph. The size of the photo doesn’t change even though the file is larger. I changed the settings (media/settings) but nothing works. Can you help?
Hi Joe,
Here is a simple tip that you can try if you haven’t already tried it. Press the enter key twice after adding a paragraph. Click on the upload media button to upload your photo. In the right column, select Full Size and then click on the insert image button. As soon as photo appears in your visual editor, press the enter key twice and start typing.
It still doesn’t solve my problem. I recently moved my newly created website from a subdomain to my main domain and everything worked fine except for my uploads. I went to my optons.php and tried to change my upload path. I noticed that when I tried to upload a file, the file is not even in my folder, doesn’t show up in my media library as a thumbnail. However, when I clicked on the broken image and clicked “edit image,” the image actually showed up!!! How weird! How can I fix my problem?
Hi Alice, I have exactly the same problem! I tried all the solutions that are given down but because my problem is with my multisite duplicates and not with the root site, none of them works. I can uploads the pictures, the sub-site recognizes they are there but shows just grey thumbnails. When I go to my ftp all access are correct and I have already tried changing the upload path. Nothing works! Could you solve your problem? What was the solution??
Similar problem is occurring with me. I have tried everything but still no use. When I upload an image, I see a blank thumbnail clicking on which I see a blank preview, but if I click on edit then only I am able to see the image. When I put that image in any post I see a broken link.
did anyone find the solution to this issue. I am having the same occurrence with a cloned site that was created to work on for a site rebuild
Thank you so much for the help. It worked for me as well
I refreshed cache in WordPress and that fixed it.
changing file permissions to 655 worked!
This is what I did to mine:
I have moved my main file from one folder to the other in same cPanel and done some redirection. I didn’t change the LINK in Media setting for folder location so rather than images being located in the folder for the current domain directory, it was searching for images in the folder off the current one.
Just go to Settings in your wordpress dashboard, locate Uploading Files, Store uploads in this folder and check the directory (link) in that box. If the domain name is the old one you transferred from, then change it to your current one and save. Try upload images again and you would be glad.
Thanks to the author and also Temi, both your tips helped fixed my issue. I initially created my WP site in a subdirectory as well and subsequently moved it to the root folder to go live, not realising that Media settings was one of the places where I needed to update with the new URL to remove the subdirectory.
Just to clarify for everyone else, the Uploading Files field is under Settings > Media.
Temi you are my hero!
Temi, you are godlike. The uploads folder path setting on WP was the freaking issue!!!! Thank you so much.
I am proud to solve your problems people…Just Login to your Cpanel and deactivate ModSecurity, just deactivate it.then you will be able to upload your images comfortablly
Thanks Man, you just saved me, But is there any Disadvantage of Disabling Mod Security
My images have uploaded into the media library, with no error messages and no permission problem.
However, when I click Insert into Post, it remains blank.
In Manage Products, there is a series of icons saying “No Image”
I have tried this several times, and have 6 of the same images in the Media library, (which I can’t delete!) but still no images on the product page.
I have tried this with 4 different pictures for 4 different products.
Help!
The fiirst step worked perfectly well for me!!! Thanks WP Beginner
If this problem seems to be only when using google chrome- I found the answer to cure this problem as follows:
Go to settings on chrome- if you are signed in to chrome- sign out. reset the browser, clear the cache, reboot the machine and use chrome without signing in- presto !!!
You should now be able to upload images using the normal way. let me know if this works for you !
Hello,
I have been facing the issue of new image uploads being shown broken. I tried changing values from 755 to 744 & 711 & did 644 as well as as 655 but the issue is still persisting.. please suggest me how do i get this resolved?