WordPress Error on Image Uploading – Missing a Temporary Folder

When you’re using WordPress, often you’re adding images into your articles. As part of the image upload process, the image goes into a temporary folder as it is worked on.

What do you do when WordPress gives you the error:

“Missing a Temporary Folder”

Normally this kind of an error has to do with your PHP configuration settings. As such, it can happen when you do a PHP install or upgrade, situations where the PHP files might be adjusted. You’ll need to update your php.ini file to indicate where the temporary files should now go.

First off, I recommend you install the phpinfo plugin for your WordPress system. That way you can make sure to see exactly what values are currently set.

Next, time to work on the php.ini file.

There should be a line in there saying:

upload_tmp_dir = C:\Windows\temp

You can check to make sure that folder exists and also if there are old files in there, manually clear those out.

You can additionally make a folder c:\tmp which could help.

If you don’t have access to your PHP files, you can handle this manually by editing your wp-config.php file. Add in the line:

define(‘WP_TEMP_DIR’, dirname( FILE ) . ‘/wp-content/tmp/’);

Make sure you reboot your webserver for that to take effect.

Then also create that subdirectory of /wp-content/tmp/ to hold your temp files.

Make sure you grant permissions for WordPress to write into that directory.