I should also add that I’ve tried with the following directories chmod 777 with no luck.
wp-content/
wp-content/blogs.dir/
wp-content/blogs.dir/1/
wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/
wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/avatars/
I’ve also tried uploading images that were way too big or way small and still got the same error.
I am having the exact same problem. First, I got an error saying that the folder wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files couldn’t be created. Then, I chowned the wp-content folder recursively, which then resulted in the error you are getting. The only difference is that I’m using the current stable version of MU, 2.6. I have searched for hours and I’m not finding a solution. Help!
I ahd the same problem.
Couldn’t be created and then it couldn;t be moved.
It’s working fine on a test 2.6.5 install that I have.
The seems like it may be an ownership problem on those folders? I think the owner of the folders needs to be apache or www.
re-installed with most recent version of both WPMU-bleeding edge and BuddyPress and it seemed to fix the issues.
I don’t think it was a BP or WP issue but a server problem.
Thanks for helping.
I had the same error.
I tried to change blogs.dir to 777 and the folders within it to 777, but my ftp gave an error.
Then I noticed was that my blogs.dir folder was “owned” by nobody.
So my server peeps changed the ownership of the folders,and I was able to make them 777. Then I noticed that mu/buddypress made a new folder “02” down a few folders.. but then I still got the upload error.
after many more emails my server admins found that:
The issue was that a directory ournewbuddypresssite.com/avatars needed to be created and given permissions of the web server.
hope this helps anyone with similar issues, and perhaps an update may be needed to the install documentation? not sure if it’s just me or my server issues though..
(fresh install with Mu V 2.7 and bpress beta2 I’m pretty sure)
thanks DJ Steve!! That solved it for me 
I updated to the latest svn build tonight and it solved it… I think it was a BP code issue.. Noticed that add friend no longer works…
Having the problem today.
Had the same problem, when I moved my site to a new host. It was also the file owner who caused that trouble.
whats the directory path(s) it saves to, then moves the file to?
wp-content/blogs.dir needs to be writeable.
The 1.0b2 build had a problem with this though (at least for groups). When upgrading to RC1 the problem went away for me.
yeah but on windows server 2008 its heirarchal permissions and everything is set so pretty unsure what the problem could be at this point
What permissions do you have set? “Everyone”, “Full access”?
Running into this problem today, and creating an avatars folder didn’t help. Does anyone have another solution?
same problem couldnt solve the chown or chgroup or chmod. what else can I do ?
Has anyone been able to find a solution to this yet?
Hi Everyone,
I have solved this problem on my installation with help from a very wonderful sysadmin. Here are the two steps we took to make this work:
– PHP safe_mode turned OFF
– PHP able to execute the “readfile” function.
Now that we’ve done that, things appear to be working. I hope this solution works for others.
@mattkg: Thanks a lot, its working fine for me with safe mode OFF.
Im having the same problem on the latest branch of WPMU2.7.1 and latest trunk of BP
Having the same problem with avartars.
Anything new here?
Anything new since two months ago? There have been many changes to BuddyPress over that time!
Have you searched the forum and read this thread
If so, then you need to provide more of an explanation than “Having the same problems with avatars”. That tells us exactly nothing to begin the process of providing support. Please see this thread as well.
Oh, It’s working fine on set safe mode off
Just thought I’d mention that I had this issue and solved it by checking that the blogs.dir folder AND ALL SUBFOLDERS, RECURSIVELY, were set to ownership by ‘apache’ and had 775 permissions.
This took some time to trouble shoot, as it turned out my host was only setting the blogs.dir folder to ownership by ‘apache’ and not its sub-folders. I had to specifically ask a second tech support guy to check the sub-folders for me before I figured this out.
‘apache’ needs to be the owner on apache machines, the rest should have the main ftp user as the owner (you may have to enable group permissions so you can still edit them)
I Hope this article I wrote helps: http://erikshosting.com/wordpress-tips-code/buddypress-avatar-upload-failed-fix/
