For about a couple of months some of my WordPress blogs have not been upgrading cleanly. The automatic upgrade (using the plugin or the core feature) has been failing midway without any errors or explanations. Today via good old Googling I finally discovered a way to fix it. To be safe take a backup of the files, folders and database of your WordPress installation before trying this out.
The solution is to add the following 2 lines (plus 2 comments) in the WordPress .htaccess file:
# Ensure PHP5 being used
# For WordPress auto upgrade
AddType x-mapp-php5 .php
AddHandler x-mapp-php5 .php
This made the problem go away. It seems like WordPress was getting confused by the presence of both PHP4 and PHP5 on my shared web host, 1and1, and was failing silently.
Thanks to the WordPress support forum and Mosher’s post where I found the aforementioned fix.
Blogposts
Oh, this rocks! You are awesome! I have 1&1 too, I’m off to fix my problem, yay!!
(Found you through a fellow 1&1 friend who tried this and it worked. Thanks!)
OraExplorer » Use PHP5 to Solve the WordPress Automatic Upgrade Failure for 1and1 // Feb 22, 2010 at 6:16 am
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Thank you so much! This fixed this nagging issue for me. I have been struggling with this for quite some time.
THANK YOU!
This made my day
Of course!!!! Should’ve known … but didn’t. Thanks again.
Serabe Reloaded » About WordPress automatic upgrade. // Jun 30, 2010 at 4:36 am
[...] wondering why, found out this post with its really easy solution: just add the following two lines to the WordPress .htaccess: # [...]
Had the same problem with WordPress not automatically upgrading on 1&1, but this solved it!
Thank you for taking the time to share!
THANK YOU!
I have about ten blogs on 1and1 and have been fighting this issue forever. Just had to install one for a client with a specific plugin that wouldn’t activate. Tried your solution and his plugin activated AND I can now update all my plugins on all my sites. You. Are. Wonderful.
Thanks.
Thank you, thank you, thank you! Solved my install problem and more.
Hey – much appreciated… I am also a 1&1 user with the same symptoms. It worked like a champ! I just had to say thanks!
All this did was break mine…..
I am trying to get the plugin automatic upgrade to work, it did at one time, but its broke now.
esotechnica » Blog Archive » Wordpress auto-updates again! // Aug 29, 2010 at 2:07 pm
[...] automatic updates working. It’s been time consuming to do them manually. Finally, I found this post on “Varun’s Whiteboard on [...]