Fix Destination directory for file streaming does not exist or is not writable

In this tutorial, you will learn how to fix the “Destination directory for file streaming does not exist or is not writable” error in WordPress when you try to install a new plugin.

Incorrect permissions cause this error for the wp-content/uploads folder. WordPress needs to create a temporary folder to place the files when downloaded, before installing a new plugin.

You will have to connect over FTP and check the permissions for the folders in wp-content and make sure that they are all using 755 instead of 777.

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Additionally, you can create a temporary folder outside of the install directory (e.g above public_html). In other words, find the document root folder of your site and go up a directory. As we are now outside of the public directory, we can now create a folder called ‘wordpress_temp’ with 777 permissions and not create a security hole.

The next step is to edit the wp-config.php file in the document root directory and add the following line at the bottom.

define('WP_TEMP_DIR', ABSPATH . '/../wordPress_temp/');

You can now return to your WordPress admin panel and try to install a new plugin without any error.

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