Wordpress - Failed to connect to FTP Server 127.0.0.1/:21

Are you using Lion? If so, Apple dropped support for managing the FTP service via the Sharing settings. But the underlying service is still available. You can manually enable it by running this command in the terminal

sudo launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/ftp.plist

Then you can stop and start the service like this:

sudo launchctl stop com.apple.ftpd

sudo launchctl start com.apple.ftpd

I would actually recommend that you run Apache as your currently logged in user instead (thus avoiding the FTP requirement completely), since this is your local machine and it's for development purposes. You just need to modify your httpd.conf file which is located at /etc/apache2/httpd.conf.

Change:

User _www
Group _www

To:

User yourshortname
Group staff

Then just restart Apache by running the command: sudo apachectl restart and then enter your password.

Depending on your version of OS X, you will need to configure and run FTP and open a port in the firewall. It's best if you google your OS X version - 10.6, 10.7, etc. - specifically and find the docs necessary to set up FTP and Sharing.

You also need to realize the security implications of opening up FTP to your local machine; someone port scanning your IP may be able to find your FTP port.

It's often easiest - and the best for security - to simply download the plugin and move it into the plugins folder.

I was facing this issue. This post helped me. There could be multiple reason:

• Permission issue on the files and folders.
• The FS_METHOD should be "direct" in wp-config.php file.
• Remove FTP configuration from wp-config.php if you are migrating from bitnami to manage it on your own.

For me it was bitnami related settings issue.