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When a WordPress site on an OpenLiteSpeed (OLS) server fails while uploading or updating a plugin/theme, the issue may be related to incorrect ownership of OpenLiteSpeed temporary files. This guide explains how to identify the issue and apply the known fix.

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Symptoms

A customer may report one or more of the following:
  • Plugin upload fails
  • Plugin update fails
  • Theme upload fails
  • Theme update fails
  • WordPress shows a 500 Internal Server Error
  • The issue happens during upload/update actions only
  • The site is hosted on an OpenLiteSpeed / OLS stack server

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Example customer message:

 I cannot update the theme. It is showing a 500 error on your server

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Affected Stack

This issue is related to servers using the OpenLiteSpeed (OLS) stack. It does not usually happen on NGINX stack servers. In customer-friendly language:  Your server is using the OpenLiteSpeed stack. This issue is related to OpenLiteSpeed temporary file handling and is not related to Redis or cache settings.

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Error to Look For

Open the server logs in ORIV:

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Server → Logs

Or use the direct server logs URL:
Look for this error:
Failed to obtain or reinitialize VMemBuf.

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Example:

2026-05-13 06:27:02.750619 [ERROR] [269567] [192.128.217.123:13925:H2-1] Failed to obtain or reinitialize VMemBuf.
If this error appears while the customer is uploading or updating a plugin/theme, apply the fix below.

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Likely Cause

OpenLiteSpeed uses temporary swap/report files under:
/tmp/lshttpd/
In some cases, these files or folders may have incorrect ownership. When OpenLiteSpeed cannot write to or reinitialize these temporary buffers properly, WordPress actions such as plugin/theme upload or update can fail with a 500 error. The fix is to restore ownership to the correct server user:
oriv:oriv

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Fix

SSH into the server or use the ORIV Command Runner.

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Run:

📄 filename.js

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Using ORIV Command Runner

If you are using the ORIV dashboard:
  1. Open the ORIV dashboard.
  2. Go to Servers.
  3. Select the affected server.
  4. Open Command Runner.
  5. Run the following commands:
chown -R oriv:oriv /tmp/lshttpd/swap chown -R oriv:oriv /tmp/lshttpd/.rtreport*
  1. Wait for the command to finish.
  2. Ask the customer to test the plugin/theme upload or update again.

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Verification

After applying the fix, ask the customer to retry the same action: – Upload the plugin again If successful, the issue is resolved. Also, check the server logs again and confirm that the same error is no longer appearing during the upload/update attempt:
Failed to obtain or reinitialize VMemBuf.