# Wordpress updates

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wordpress-updates/571145>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [February 12, 2011, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wordpress-updates/571145 "2011-02-12T17:53:39Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![vivacions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/3ab097/32.png) [@vivacions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vivacions)\
**Post date:** [February 12, 2011, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wordpress-updates/571145/1 "2011-02-12T17:53:39Z")

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A friend of mine is having trouble updating his Wordpress blog to v. 3.0.5. Here’s the error message he keeps getting;

> [@](#):
>
> Warning: copy(/f5/_**/public/wordpress/wp-content/plugins/akismet/akismet.php) [function.copy]: failed to open stream: Permission denied in /f5/**_/public/wordpress/wp-admin/includes/class-wp-filesystem-direct.php on line 200
> 
> Warning: copy(/f5/_**/public/wordpress/wp-content/plugins/akismet/akismet.php) [function.copy]: failed to open stream: Permission denied in /f5/**_/public/wordpress/wp-admin/includes/class-wp-filesystem-direct.php on line 200  
> Could not copy file.: /f5/\*\*\*/public/wordpress/wp-content/plugins/akismet/akismet.php
> 
> Installation Failed

Help? Not sure what’s happening.

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**Author:** ![fubbleskag](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c2a13f/32.png) [@fubbleskag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fubbleskag)\
**Post date:** [February 13, 2011, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wordpress-updates/571145/2 "2011-02-13T00:42:34Z")

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sounds like a permission error, not particular to v3.0.5. here’s an example [Automatic upgrade to 2.7.1 problem | WordPress.org](http://wordpress.org/support/topic/automatic-upgrade-to-271-problem)

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**Author:** ![Claverhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/13edae/32.png) [@Claverhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claverhouse)\
**Post date:** [February 13, 2011, 11:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wordpress-updates/571145/3 "2011-02-13T11:54:27Z")

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All plugins should be disabled during an upgrade.  
( Then re-enabled, either one by one or _en masse_: the latter generally works, but if an error displays then one has to disable the offending plugin. If one can’t access the control panel, a plugin can be disabled by removing it through FTP [usually in ~/wp-content/plugins/]. ) Akismet is a plugin just like any other.  
The automatic Wordpress upgrade system naturally does this and closes the site during the process.  
Bur as fubbleskag says, if it’s a permissions problem FTP to the site and adjust the permissions of the Akismet folder to 755. But keep all plugins disabled during a WP upgrade ( obviously, not during an upgrade for an individual plugin: in that case just disable the particular plugin during the process. )