Are you seeing ‘Missing a temporary folder’ error on your WordPress site? This error makes it impossible to upload images, update themes and plugins, or update WordPress core. In this article, we will show you how to easily fix “Missing a temporary folder” error in WordPress.
What Causes The ‘Missing a Temporary Folder’ Error in WordPress?
This error is caused by incorrect PHP settings on your WordPress hosting environment. There is a specific PHP setting that defines a temporary folder to be used by apps like WordPress to temporarily store data before saving it to the desired location.
WordPress needs access to this temporary folder when you upload an image, install or update a theme or plugin, or update WordPress core.
If the location of this folder is not defined in your server’s PHP configuration, then WordPress will be unable to do any of these things and will show you ‘Missing a temporary folder’ error.
Having said that, let’s see how to easily fix the ‘Missing a temporary folder’ error in WordPress.
Fix Missing Temporary Folder Error in WordPress
For this tutorial, you will need to edit wp-config.php file in WordPress. If you haven’t done this before, then please see our guide on how to edit wp-config.php file in WordPress.
First, you will need to connect to your website using an FTP client or File Manager in cPanel dashboard of your hosting account.
Next, you will need to locate the wp-config.php file and edit it.
You need to paste this code to the file just before the line that says ‘That’s all, stop editing! Happy blogging’.
define('WP_TEMP_DIR', dirname(__FILE__) . '/wp-content/temp/');
Save your changes and upload the wp-config.php file back to your website.
Next, you need to go to /wp-content/ folder and create a new folder inside it. You need to name this new folder temp.
That’s all, you can now visit your WordPress admin area and try uploading an image.
Troubleshooting
If this method doesn’t work, then check the directory permissions for your wp-content folder.
Note: This error is caused by poorly configured hosting environment. The solution described above is just a workaround. You should still ask your hosting provider to fix this. If they don’t, then you should switch to one of these top WordPress hosting companies.
We hope this article helped you fix the ‘Missing a temporary folder’ error in WordPress. You may also want to bookmark our ultimate list of the most common WordPress errors and how to fix them.
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I had the same problem when uploading new media files, updating my theme solved this problem for me.
Glad that solved the issue for you and thanks for sharing what worked for you
I had the “Missing temporary folder” error today, with only one site, and the problem was an old theme. I temporarily switched theme to one of the default WordPress themes (‘twentytwentyone’) and the error disappeared, at least in my case. I could see a whole bunch of JS errors in the browser console log (F12 in Chrome).
I did check out the temporary folder stuff above, but it didn’t seem to be key for me. Worth noting that my theme was VERY old and VERY broken (ie: PHP 5.6 days!), but just mentioning this in case someone else like me has tried everything else!
I didn’t have time to check out what was happening in the code to produce this message, but just wanting to confirm that there’s at least one cause. In my case I’m the host and I’m sure the other sites on the server had no problem.
Thanks for sharing what caused this issue for you should someone else be looking for a reason
I have edit wp-config.php and created a temp folder but also there is error and not going to upload any file except after doing this I can just find and install themes and plugins but can’t upload from pc.
If the first method in this guide did not work for you, we would recommend following the steps in our troubleshooting section.
Thanks for this info. I had a site that had no issues previously with upgrading and then all of a sudden nothing would work – upgrades, uploads, etc. This fixed it. Thanks so much!
Glad our guide was helpful
Thank you so much for this, it really was easy to follow.
You’re welcome
Thank you. It worked perfectly.
You’re welcome
Thank you so Much, God Bless you
Glad our guide was helpful
Hi all. Unfortunately I have tried to find the wp-config.php file in my cpanel, without any luck. It is just not there.
You may want to check with your hosting provider to ensure you are connected to the correct folder for your site
Thank you!! You saved my nerves…
Thanks’ it worked for me.
Also this error shows up when you have reached your disk quota. I get many clients emailing me about this, but they’ve just been uploading huge files and their web hosting is full. Clear some space and it’ll work again.
Thanks for Suggest..
but i’m tried , before i’ll can’t upload . finish set to set guide line.
pls Anyothers way
Add From Server plugin saved my time. it’s easy to use, just upload your image through ftp and use Add from sever plugin to import to your Media Library.