- Tips & Tricks

Download failed. Destination directory for file streaming does not exist or is not writable.

Did you get this error: “Download failed. Destination directory for file streaming does not exist or is not writable.” after upgrading to WordPress 3.5? The error usually occurs when trying to install or update a plugin or theme. Here is a simple fix to the problem.

  • First you will need to gain access to your wordpress files. This will usually mean getting FTP access to your website directory.
  • Once you have obtained access to your WordPress directory, open up the wp-config.php file.
  • Add this line of text to the end of the file:
    define(‘WP_TEMP_DIR’, ABSPATH . ‘wp-content/’);
  • Save your wp-config.php file and you should no longer have problems updating/installing plugins or themes

This will fix a PHP problem that fails to write to a temporary folder and will use your wp-content folder as the temporary location when doing updates to plugins or themes.

For more information on the cause of this problem, visit: http://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/22900

About Joey Iodice

I'm a software developer focusing on ASP.net, HTML5, jQuery, & Javascript.
Read All Posts By Joey Iodice

3 thoughts on “Download failed. Destination directory for file streaming does not exist or is not writable.

  1. I am facing this issue and I tried the above. But it isn’t working for me. I am not able to download any plugins and also not able to edit/delete any code files through the Dashboard editor. The permissions on my wp-content folder is 755. Would you be able to help me ?

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *