"Unable to create directory" errors in CMS applications

Symptoms

When working inside your CMS application, you may receive an error saying ""Unable to create directory."  This is often the result of bad file ownership on the system due to your PHP settings.

Description 

The easiest way to check if the problem is due to bad permissions would be to examine the file structure with either an FTP client or through an SSH connection.  If the files are not owned by your account user, they may be owned by user "99" which is "nobody" - the Apache user on the system.  The screenshot below shows an example of this through an FTP client:

This would indicate the files and directories were created automatically by the CMS software, likely through a PHP script.  In order to make sure this work gets performed by the proper user we'll need to check the PHP Handler on the system.

Workaround

To make sure the files and directories get created with the correct ownership you'll want to ensure that your system is using the suPHP handler for PHP, as that works well with software such as Wordpress or Joomla.  You can adjust this from the cPanel >> MultiPHP Manager page on the system under the Handlers tab at the top.  If your system doesn't have the suPHP handler available you can install that through EasyApache and then it will appear in the MultiPHP Manager page.