Web Hosting

WordPress upgrade fails, “Could not copy file: /var/www/wordpress/wp-activate.php”

Have you logged into WordPress and you get the message “WordPress update available, click here to upgrade”, you click “here”, wait and then the upgrade fails?

This is a common problem so we would like to post the solution for our clients:

1) Ensure that your FTP user is the owner of your WordPress install directory, this is most likely not the problem unless you have your own dedicated server and installed WordPress using root user.

2) Ensure that your WordPress directory has the correct permissions, it should be 755. This is the most probable problem. Change the permissions to 755 and then try the WordPress upgrade again.

If your FTP user is not the owner of your WordPress directory OR your WordPress directory has permissions other than 755, your WordPress install/upgrade will fail with the message “Could not copy file: /var/www/wordpress/wp-activate.php”.

How to Install WordPress in Plesk

As you are reading this, you are probably unaware of how easy it really is to install a web application such as WordPress. It really is just a few button clicks with Plesk.

  1. Login to the Plesk Control Panel
  2. Click on “web hosting”
  3. Make sure “php safe mode” is OFF
  4. Click on “Web Applications”
  5. Click “Install Web Application”
  6. Type “wordpress” and press “Search”
  7. Click “Install”
  8. Agree to the WordPress user license
  9. Select “document root” if you dont want wordpress in a sub directory
  10. Set the WordPress database password
  11. Set the WordPress admin password
  12. Enter your email address for admin notifications
  13. Enter your wordpress page title (can be changed later)
  14. Click “install”
  15. WordPress is now installed!

Ok, so there are 15 items in the list – really, it would have taken you longer to read the list than to install WordPress. Install WordPress now and see how easy it is, you can just delete it afterwards – and that’s just as easy as pressing one button!

For more information about installing web applications see our Hosting FAQ entry “How to Install and Manage Web Applications” or, watch our short video “How to install a Web Application in Plesk”.

Free Web Hosting

We are now offering Free Web Hosting trials (for 1 month) to all new domain name registrations.

The web hosting service will be fully featured (except for SMTP outgoing email – sorry spammers!) however everything else is fully functional and completely FREE of charge.

  • Host 1 website using PHP, HTML or SSI encoding
  • 250MB of FTP Webspace to store your website
  • 1GB Monthly Traffic allowance
  • 1 x mySql Database to use with WordPress, Joomla etc
  • Full DNS Zone Management
  • Comprehensive AwStats or Webalizer visitor statistics

Upgrade to a full account at any time to receive up to1 month additional free hosting at your chosen account level.

Does adding a domain to my multi domain web hosting plan register it to me?

Multi site hosting enables you to host several sites according to your hosting plan however you do first need to register the domain names using the normal registration process first as adding the domain does not register it to you.

You can register domain names at our Domain Registration page.

phpMyAdmin doesn’t load when I click on the icon in Plesk

A common problem when attempting to launch Webadmin is your browser Popup Blocker. The Webadmin application opens in a popup window so you must ensure that pop-ups are enabled for your browser.

If you find that clicking on the “Webadmin” button does nothing, then this is the problem, use the guide below to temporarily disable your browser popup blocker.

To disable the Popup blocker in Internet Explorer

  1. Open Internet Explorer and select the Tools option.
  2. In the window that displays, click on the Internet Options option.
  3. Click on the Privacy tab
  4. Uncheck Turn on Popup blocker
  5. Click on Ok to save your preferences
  6. Close the window

To disable the Popup blocker in Firefox

  1. Open the Firefox menu and select the Tools option.
  2. In the window that displays, click on the Content option.
  3. Remove the checkmark from the Block pop-up windows option.
  4. Close the window

To disable the Popup blocker in Chrome

  1. Open the Chrome Tools menu and select the Options option.
  2. In the window that displays, click on the Under the bonnet tab.
  3. Click on the Content Settings button
  4. Click on the Pop-ups tab
  5. Select Allow sites to show pop-ups then press Close
  6. Close the windows

To disable the Popup blocker in Safari

  1. Open the Safari menu and select the Preferences option.
  2. In the window that displays, click on the Security option.
  3. Remove the checkmark from the Block pop-up windows option.
  4. Close the window

That’s all there is to it! If you have any problems simply contact the Helpdesk for further assistance,