How to Fix “Missing a Temporary Folder” Error in WordPress

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.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.