Do you want to understand WordPress file and directory structure?
All core WordPress files, themes, plugins, and user uploads are stored on your web hosting server.
In this beginner's guide, we will explain the WordPress file and directory structure.
Why You Should Understand WordPress File and Directory Structure?
Most users do not need to understand WordPress files or directories to run their WordPress sites. However, understanding how WordPress stores files and directories can help you troubleshoot many common WordPress problems on your own.
This guide will help you:
- Understand which WordPress files and folders are core files.
- Learn how WordPress stores your images and media uploads.
- Where WordPress stores your themes and plugins.
- The location where the configuration files are stored on your WordPress installation.
This information can also help you understand how WordPress works behind the scenes and which WordPress files you should back up.
That being said, let’s take a look at the file and directory structure of WordPress.
Accessing WordPress Files and Directories
Your WordPress files and directories are stored on your web hosting server. You can access these files using an FTP client. See our guide on how to upload WordPress files using FTP for detailed instructions.
A simpler alternative to FTP is the file manager application built into most WordPress hosting control panels.
Once you connect to your WordPress site using FTP or a file manager, you will see a file and directory structure like this:
In the root folder, you will see the core files and folders of WordPress. These files and folders are used to run your WordPress website.
Aside from the .htaccess and wp-config.php files, you should not edit other files yourself.
The following is a list of the core WordPress files and folders you will see in the root directory of your WordPress website.
- wp-admin [directory]
- wp-content [directory]
- wp-includes [directory]
- index.php
- License.txt
- README.html
- wp-activate.php
- wp-blog-header.php
- wp-comment-post.php
- wp-config-sample.php
- wp-cron.php
- wp-links-opml.php
- wp-load.php
- wp-login.php
- wp-mail.php
- wp-settings.php
- wp-signup.php
- wp-trackback.php
- xmlrpc.php
The above list is missing the .htaccess and wp-config.php files. This is because these two files are created after WordPress is installed.
WordPress Configuration Files
Your WordPress root directory contains some special configuration files. These files contain important settings specific to your WordPress site.
- .htaccess – Server configuration file, used by WordPress to manage permalinks and redirects.
- wp-config.php – This file tells WordPress how to connect to your database. It also sets some global settings for your WordPress site.
- index.php – The index file basically loads and initializes all WordPress files when a user requests a page.
Sometimes you may need to edit your wp-config.php or .htaccess files. Be careful when editing these two files. If you are not careful, you may make your website inaccessible. When editing these two files, be sure to create a backup on your computer before making any changes.
Depending on how your WordPress site is set up, you may or may not have the following files in your root directory.
- robots.txt – contains instructions for search engine crawlers
- Favicon.ico – WordPress hosts sometimes generate a favicon file.
In the wp-content folder
WordPress stores all uploads, plugins, and themes in the wp-content folder.
Normally, you would assume that you can edit files and folders in the wp-content folder. However, this is not entirely true.
Let’s take a look inside the wp-content folder to understand how it works and what you can do here.
The contents of the wp-content folder may vary from one WordPress site to another. However, all WordPress sites generally contain the following:
- [Directory] Topics
- [Directory] Plugins
- [Directory] Upload
- index.php
WordPress stores your theme files /wp-content/themes/in folders. You can edit theme files, but it is generally not recommended. Once you update your theme to a newer version, your changes will be overwritten during the update process.
That’s why it’s recommended to create a child theme for WordPress theme customization.
All WordPress plugins that you download and install to your website are stored in the /wp-content/plugins/ folder. You cannot edit plugin files directly unless you have written your own WordPress plugin specifically for your website.
In many WordPress tutorials, you will see some code snippets that you can add to your WordPress website. You can add custom code to your WordPress website by adding it to your child theme’s functions.php file or by creating a website-specific plugin.
However, the easiest and safest way to add custom code is to use a code snippet plugin like WPCode . For step-by-step instructions, see this guide on how to easily add custom code in WordPress .
WordPress stores all image and media uploads in this /wp-content/uploads/folder. By default, uploads are <span> </span>/year/month/<span> </span>organized into folders. Whenever you create a WordPress backup, you should include the uploads folder.
You can download a fresh copy of WordPress core, themes, and installed plugins from WordPress' source. However, if you lose your uploads folder, it will be very difficult to restore it without a backup.
You may see some additional default folders in the wp-content directory.
- Languages – WordPress stores language files for non-English WordPress sites in this folder.
- Upgrade – This is a temporary folder created by WordPress during the upgrade to a newer version.
Many WordPress plugins may also create their own folders in your wp-content folder to store files.
Some WordPress plugins may /wp-content/uploads/<span> </span>create folders within folders to hold user uploaded content. For example, this demo site contains folders created by the Smash Balloon , WooCommerce , SeedProd, and WPForms plugins.
Some of these folders may contain important files. Therefore, we recommend that you back up all such folders just in case.
Other folders may contain files that you can safely delete. For example, your cache plugin (such as WP Rock , etc.) may create folders to save cache data.
Well, I hope this article helped you understand the file and directory structure of WordPress. You may also want to check out our beginner’s guide on managing WordPress database with phpMyAdmin and our tutorial on how to create a custom WordPress theme without any coding knowledge .
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