WordPress PHP Safe mode

Solution:

Create a PHP script and access it, the contents of which should be

<?php phpinfo(); ?>

Look for information about safe mode. Also, as a note, safe mode has been removed from PHP 5.4+.

WordPress may think it’s in safe mode either, because it still is in safe mode or it is being denied permissions it needs, and it’s putting it down to being in safe mode. Also, that error message looks like a message generated by PHP and not WordPress in which case safe mode really is still likely to still be enabled. You can read more in Safe Mode (PHP Manual).

As for the permissions, 777 is not a good idea as scripts could be uploaded and executed. I thought WordPress should be good at preventing scripts to be uploaded in the first place – but you never know, which is why it’s usually best to set the most restrictive permissions. Usually you just need read and write access. To read more, see Understanding File Permissions in FTP (CHMOD).