Can’t Install Plugins on WordPress | Top 5 Issues & Their Solutions
The most dependable Content Management System (CMS) platform is WordPress. Because of its simplicity, it is very popular with everyone from beginners to advanced. But sometimes beginners are facing various problems or issues. However, issues can arise at any time. A common problem is: they can’t install plugins on their WordPress website.
If you are facing this issue, you are in the right place to solve it. To overcome this problem, you do not need to reinstall your plugins.
Don’t worry! I will discuss the possible issues in installing plugins and how to overcome those through the article.
What is Plugin
The plugin is a set of instructions that includes the new function of your WordPress website. To enhance the user experience, you need a plugin.
How to Install WordPress Plugins Manually
WordPress not only has free plugins but also paid plugins. You can install free plugins from the WordPress repository. Just go to Dashboard, click Plugins>Add New>Install, and finally Active it.
Are you a beginner in this field and want to know essential plugins for a new website? Well, you can follow my previous article, “Install WordPress Free | The Ultimate Guideline For a Beginner.”
On the other hand, paid plugins installation process is different from free plugins. You have to download a .zip file for this and install it manually. So, let’s check the process.
Step 1: Download your desired plugin from the website. After that, you will get a .zip file.
Step 2: Log in to your website admin panel and go to Dashboard. Then, click Add New from the plugin section.
Step 3: On the top of the page, you can see the Upload button. Click it and select your downloaded .zip file from the computer.
Step 4: After that, install and activate it.
Wow! Your manual plugin installation process is ok. Now, you can use it from the admin menu.
Top 5 Issues: Why Can’t Install Plugins on WordPress
1. WordPress.com Hosting Platform
WordPress.com is a platform where you can host your website. Its free version offers a limited-service of the website. However, it is totally different from WordPress.org. You can read the linked article if you don’t know the difference between WordPress.com vs. WordPress.org.
Besides, WordPress.com has five plans, and each is separate from the others. It offers free, personal, premium, business, and e-commerce plans. All plans are not suitable for third-party plugins or themes.
Those who use free, personal, and premium plans can not install any plugins. However, if you want to use plugins and fix your issue, you must migrate business and e-commerce plans. Therefore, you have to spend some amount because it is not free.
Otherwise, you can use WordPress.org. You’ll be able to install third-party plugins and themes as well. But if you are a newbie and learn about WordPress, I recommend you use WordPress.com.
2. Issues of Memory Limit
Secondly, the most common issue is the limitation of memory. You can access plugins or themes but not install them. When you want to install, you will see an error message like:
Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 67108864 bytes exhausted
You can fix this issue as soon as possible, just increasing the PHP memory size. The default memory limit is 64M. If you increase it with 128M, 256M, or more, you will upload plugins or themes.
To increase the memory limit, you have to log in to the cPanel. Then click File Manager > public_html. After that, you have to find out the wp-config.php file and go to the edit option by right click of the mouse.
Next, copy the following code and paste it before this line ‘That’s all, stop editing! Happy blogging.’.
define('WP_MEMORY_LIMIT', '256M');
As a result, your problem will be solved. And you can upload your essential plugins or themes. You can solve this problem in other ways, which I have discussed in the following section.
3. Exceeding File Size Limits
Is memory limit the only reason to upload a file or plugins? No. If your file size is too large, WordPress will not allow you to upload files. Moreover, you will get an error message if your allowable file size is exceeded.
This error message is like this:
“The uploaded file exceeds the upload_max_filesize directive in php.ini.“
How to fix it? To fix it, you have to go to File Manager > public_html > wp-admin through cPanel. Also, you can access it using FTP. In wp-admin, you will find the php.ini file. If you do not find the php.ini file, you can create a new one.
Open the php.ini file, where you will find the upload_max_filesize. You can overwrite your existing file using the following code or create a new one.
upload_max_filesize = 128M
post_max_size = 256M
memory_limit = 256M
file_uploads = On
max_execution_time = 180
There is another way to fix this issue. From your cPanel, go to MultiPHP INI Editor, which you find in the Software section. Then select your domain from the Basic Mode tab. Scroll down and edit your upload_max_filesize. It is an easy process for those who don’t like coding.
4. User Role Restrictions
WordPress has six types of user roles, which capabilities are predefined. These predefined user roles are Super Admin (for multi-site only), Administrator, Editor, Author, Contributor, and Subscriber. You can create more user roles for your website using some plugins if you need them.
If you are not an administrator user, you can’t install plugins. Sometimes the web developer does not give the administrator role to their clients. Instead of the administrator role, they create an editor role for clients.
Therefore, if you want to install plugins or themes on your website, you change the role. Otherwise, contact your developer to change it.
5. Multi-Site Network
There is another possible reason, that is why you can’t install plugins on WordPress. If your website is part of a multi-site network, you can’t see the plugin menu. Your network admin may disable menu items for users.
This is almost the same scene as WordPress.com. In this case, only a super admin can install a plugin. However, if the super admin allows a user and puts him in the administrator role, he can also do the same.
To solve this problem, contact the super admin to install your plugins. But you should know that not every WordPress plugin works appropriately on a multi-site network website.
Closing Thoughts
In conclusion, WordPress is a very popular, lightweight, and user-friendly CMS platform. Sometimes some common but easily solved problems arise in it. And as a result, you can’t install plugins to WordPress.
If you get any issues while installing plugins, you may read this article. Here are some major problems with solutions. I hope this article will help you to solve installation issues. Otherwise, you can contact a WordPress developer to fix it.
Results-Driven Organic SEO Specialist. Works with Local SEO, Organic SEO, WordPress, etc.
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