How to Fix Destination Folder Already Exists Error of a WordPress Website Using cPanel

How to Fix Destination Folder Already Exists Error of a WordPress Website Using cPanel

Managing a WordPress website can be overwhelming for beginners. So many common WordPress errors are there; you may come across a few.

Are you getting “Destination folder already exists” error? Do you know what it means and how to solve it? Such type of error prevents you from finishing a theme or plugins installation.

There are many reasons for getting such an error. Make sure you check your WordPress dashboard if you already have the theme or plugin installed.

If not, maybe your previous installation process was interrupted, which left an empty folder named after the file. Whenever you install a plugin or theme, WordPress unzips the ZIP file and extracts the folder.

It’s possible that you couldn’t delete the old folder properly. In this tutorial, you’re going to have a better understanding of solving the destination folder already exists error using cPanel.

Although, if you wish, you can also use the FTP server.

A Step By Step Process to Solve Destination Folder Already Exists Error

You may be wondering as if what’s so special about such an error. Well, if you can understand the concept of plugins and themes installation, you can fix it within a few minutes.

As I have mentioned above, when you install a plugin or theme, WordPress extracts a folder, and if that folder resides at its place when you try to install that particular theme or plugin, you get an error.

So, the solution is simple. All you need is to find out the folder and delete it, and this is easy if you know a little bit about cPanel and WordPress content folder.

Follow the process.

Step 1:

As usual, you need to open your cPanel account and search for the file manager, because it contains all of your site’s files and folders.

How to Fix Destination Folder Already Exists Error of a WordPress Website

If you see a different cPanel layout, it’s because your web hosting company has decided to use a different design theme. So no need to worry.

You can easily find the file manager.

Step 2:

On this new page, you may see the home directory, but you need to open the root directory, where all the data is available.

Navigate to public_html from the left-hand sidebar.

How to Fix Destination Folder Already Exists Error of a WordPress Website

Note: If you host multiple websites on the same web hosting, you need to open a folder of the domain you’re trying to solve an error for.

Step 3:

You can easily see the wp-content folder. Double-click to open.

Step 4:

If you’re trying to solve a problem for a plugin, open the plugins‘ folder. But if you’re having an error while installing a theme, open the themes’ folder.

 

How to Fix Destination Folder Already Exists Error of a WordPress Website

In this example, let’s look for a plugin.

Step 5:

You can see all the folders of the plugins you have installed on your WordPress website. It doesn’t matter whether a plugin is active or inactive, you can see its folder.

How to Fix Destination Folder Already Exists Error of a WordPress Website

Let say; you’re trying to install W3 Total Cache. Search for its folder name and right-click to delete it. As usual, you can also use the standard delete option from the mani cPanel navigation menu.

Now try installing the plugin from your WordPress dashboard, you see no error. Congrats, you have successfully fixed the destination folder already exists error.

I Hope You Have Understood the Concept

Now and then, many WordPress users struggle to understand the reasons for getting an error. They fret a lot. I always suggest, whenever you encounter with an error, always try to understand its causes.

Getting a “destination folder already exists” error is so simple. As you can see, you need is to find if the same folder name is available.

Conclusion

Such an error may occur while installing a WordPress theme or plugin. I remember when I was trying to install the default Twenty Seventeen theme to make some CSS changes to its menu.

Do you think you can solve such an error? Follow the guide and fix it.

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