Note: This article was originally published in 2011. Some steps, commands, or software versions may have changed. Check the current WordPress documentation for the latest information.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, make sure you have:

  • WordPress installation (self-hosted)
  • Administrator access to WordPress dashboard
  • FTP/SFTP or file manager access to server files

I’ve had some issues with automatic updates in WordPress and I’m kind of blaming Godaddy for it. When I was using my previous hosting provider all the updates always worked from within the application but now either a folder can’t be created / deleted, it get’s stuck… I don’t know anymore. Regardless, Jetpack wasn’t able to get automatically updated so I got the “An automated WordPress update has failed to complete - please attempt the update again now.” message. I went ahead and performed a manual update but now that message remains there and won’t go away. Solution:

  1. Make sure you delete the appropriate directory within the ”./wp-content/upgrade” folder
  2. Edit the .maintenance on the root directory to make sure the entry for the upgrade in progress that failed is removed

That should do the trick!

Summary

You’ve successfully learned remove the . If you run into any issues, double-check the prerequisites and ensure your WordPress environment is properly configured.