Joomla - Warning! Failed to move file error

Question

I have found some solutions to this error and tried implementing them but none of which has worked and hope that some here at SO might have a different answer.

I get this error, "Warning! Failed to move file" when I try install modules into my new installation of Joomla here:

http://sun-eng.sixfoot.co.za

Here's some solutions I have tried to no avail:

http://forum.joomla.org/viewtopic.php?f=199&t=223206

http://www.saibharadwaj.com/blog/2008/03/warning-failed-to-move-file-joomla-10x-joomla-15x/

Anyone know of another solution to this please?

Thanks!

Answer 1

Go to Help -> System Info in your administrator backend and check your Directory Permissions tab to make sure everything is writable.

Also make sure your Path to Temp Folder is correct in Site -> Global Configuration.

Finally, check to make sure that the module isn't already installed. It's possible that some files already got copied or something and now your system is having problems overwriting them.

If none of this works, let us know if the error message specifies which file can't be moved. That would help figure out a solution.

Answer 2

In the configuration folder change the temporal folder location to /tmp (public $tmp_path = '/tmp';) or create your own temperate folder and set it to /myowntemp and change the file permission to 777. you are good to go .

Answer 3

This is typically a file permissions issue. If the system cannot write to the tmp directory within Joomla it will give you the "Warning Failed To Move File" error.

The typical solution is to make the directory wide-open, in general a bad practice but a quick fix. You log in to the Linux command line via a terminal (telnet or ssh) session and set the permissions of the directory.

# chmod -R 777 ./tmp

The better option is to find out what user/group the Apache server is running as and assign the permissions accordingly. For example, if Apache is running your site as the myuser:nobody user:group then you can open up write permissions for the group by changing ownership of the tmp folder and making it writable by anyone in the group:

# chgrp -R nobody ./tmp
# chmod -R 775 ./tmp

Security can be a pain to get set correctly if you don't know *nix commands and security settings, so most people just blast a huge hole in the security with chmod 777.

The next thing you'll probably run into is another error message about not being able to update a specific directory. Again, this is a permissions issue and is typically a piece of the file being unzipped into the administrator subdirectory. Depending on whether your installing a component, a module, or a complex plugin with multiple pieces you may need to open up one or more of these directories using the same approach as above. Here is the "blow a big open hole in security" method:

# chmod -R 777 ./administrator/

Or more selectively:

# chmod -R 777 ./administrator/components/
# chmod -R 777 ./administrator/modules/

Answer 4

If you are a linux user then it is very simple to solve. Just type the following command and try again to install plugin/entension.

sudo chmod -R 777 /var/www/html/my_joomla_folder

You can also refer this link for brief information regarding permission of each folder and file. Cheers!!