How to set Magento 2 permissions and avoid installation errors

If you encounter installation issues or read/write errors in Magento 2, you may need to correct file permissions and ownership. Below are recommended setups for basic and advanced permissions.

1. Basic Permissions Setup

We recommend the following permissions for Magento:

• Directories: 711
• PHP files: 600
• All other files: 644

Run these commands from your Magento root:

find . -type d -exec chmod 0711 {} +

find . -type f -exec chmod 0644 {} +

find . -type f -name "*.php" -exec chmod 600 {} +

Set the correct ownership (replace <owner>:<group> with your actual user and group):

chown -R <owner>:<group> .

Common groups include: www-data:www-data, root:root, www-data:magento — but this depends on your server setup.

Finally, make bin/magento executable:

chmod u+x bin/magento

2. Advanced Permissions Setup

On private servers, you may log in as one user but run the web server as another. In this case, both users need to be in the same group to allow proper file access.

Step 1 — Find your username

whoami

Step 2 — Identify the web server user

ps aux | grep apache

Usually, it’s www-data.

Step 3 — Find the web server group

groups www-data

(Replace www-data with your web server user if different.)

Step 4 — Add your user to the web server group

sudo usermod -a -G www-data <your_username>

Step 5 — Confirm group membership

groups <your_username>

Your username should now be listed as a member of multiple groups, including www-data.

Restart your web server to apply changes:

• Ubuntu:

service apache2 restart

• CentOS:

service httpd restart

Step 6 — Set ownership and permissions

Navigate to your Magento installation directory and run:

cd <your Magento install directory>

find var generated vendor pub/static pub/media app/etc -type f -exec chmod g+w {} +

find var generated vendor pub/static pub/media app/etc -type d -exec chmod g+ws {} +

sudo chown -R <your_username>:<web server group> .

chmod u+x bin/magento

You can also run it in one line (assuming group is www-data):

find var generated vendor pub/static pub/media app/etc -type f -exec chmod g+w {} + && find var generated vendor pub/static pub/media app/etc -type d -exec chmod g+ws {} + && chown -R www-data:www-data . && chmod u+x bin/magento

If permissions cannot be set by the Magento user, use root privileges:

sudo find var generated vendor pub/static pub/media app/etc -type f -exec chmod g+w {} \; && sudo find var vendor pub/static pub/media app/etc -type d -exec chmod g+ws {} \; && sudo chown -R www-data:www-data . && sudo chmod u+x bin/magento

Notes

• FTP uploads: Files copied via FTP may have incorrect permissions or group ownership. Rerun the permission setup after copying.
• Group mismatch: Ensure your user belongs to the same group as Magento files. Otherwise, newly copied files may cause installation errors.

For more details, see:

[Bitnami AWS - Installation issues with Magento 2 Theme or Extensions Solved]

Updated on: 16/09/2025