Plesk Backup Error: Specified file is not accessible

After upgrading my Plesk install past 8.1.1, I encountered a problem with the builtin backup utility. When attempting to create a new backup (either locally or to an FTP repository), I would almost instantly be handed back the error:

Unable to create backup session: Specified file is not accessible

I googled around and found a couple of results, including a support forum that actually had the answer to my problem burried back on the second page.

For whatever reason, Plesk loses the ability to write to its temporary directory, where all backups are held until they are completed (even for FTP destinations). I was easily able to solve this problem by (as root):

chown -R psaadm:psaadm /var/lib/psa/dumps

Note that the original author of the suggestion I used said to chmod 777 the files, but this proved to be unnecessary. I saw that the parent directory was owned by psaadm, and it just made sense that the dumps directory would need to be as well.

In any case, it worked for me. Hope this helps someone…

20 Responses to “Plesk Backup Error: Specified file is not accessible”


  1. 1 peter

    thanks, i have a dedicated server from a company called Strato, and have the same problem. But with your help i solve the problem.

  2. 2 Geoffroy

    You are my hero…

    Thank you a lot!

  3. 3 Foster

    Thank you for your help that worked GREAT!

  4. 4 Daniel

    Thank you very much. I can confirm this fixes 8.3.0 installations.

    Dan

  5. 5 Adam

    Thank You!

  6. 6 Johannes

    Hi,
    i need to set chmod 777. the folders already were owned bypsaadm.
    But now it works too!

    thx
    Joe

  7. 7 Peter

    Excellent. Thanks for the fix.

    Not sure I’m liking Plesk.

  8. 8 Jon

    Thank you very much ! This info was very very useful ! :)

  9. 9 George

    I have the same issue but not after the upgrade. Backup works fine until I actually restore one of previous backup copies. It looks like after restoring domain from backup, Plesk screws up a lot with ownership. I first thought that it’s my server to blame but after reading this post I experimented a bit and figured out that that’s ownership issue. When I look at permissions they are fine, same as before the back ud. But ownership is completely messed up.

  10. 10 Marcelo

    Thanks very much!:D

  11. 11 webdesign

    Thx bro ! this was the first post i read and i worked right away !! thx for the support

  12. 12 chromos

    Thx!! This solved my probs too. For me it just works with set chmod 777, after the chown command.

    Thanks for your help.

  13. 13 Marc

    It worked for me on Plesk 8.4.0

    Thank you so much. You made my day. Just wonderful.

    Cheers.

  14. 14 tn

    thank you!

    from Tokyo,Japan

  15. 15 ned

    You rock man!!!!!!!

  16. 16 chris

    THANKS SO MUCH LIFESAVER. It certainly helped me :)

  17. 17 ralph

    yeah, same problem with new installed 8.6 and restored backups. But setting correct owner was the hit! Thx a lot

  18. 18 tom

    same problem with new installed 8.6 and restored backups…
    chmod 777 don’t work… your fix work!
    thank you!

  19. 19 Jason

    Thank you! In my case, the permissions were wrong and the ownership was wrong. Set to 755, and ran the recursive chown and everything is good again!

  20. 20 David

    Hiii !!!!
    Thanks very much !!!!!!

    You are the kind of people that makes this live better !!!!!
    :D

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