On a couple of my wordpress installations, I go to do the upgrade to the newest version, and using the automatic upgrade feature that’s built right in, it gets so far as to tell me that it’s downloading the files, but never goes any farther.

The alternative is to download the install files, do the manual unzip and ftp and then do the manual upgrade installation.  That’s a lot more work than it is to just click, click a few links and then have an upgraded install.

So, by way of a more permanent memory, I’m posting this post to record how I’ve found to fix the problem.

Edit the .htaccess file.

Add the following line to the top of the file.

AddType x-mapp-php5 .php

And that should do it.  Now, the install should work with the automatic links from there on out.  From what I understand, it basically forces the server to use PHP5 on .php files.