This entry is mostly just a summary or a recap if you will of a few posts ( and 2 pages of replies and comments on the Drupal site Drupal Bug Page ).

If you are experiencing the following error messages on a Drupal 7 site

Update failed! See the log below for more information. Your site is still in maintenance mode.
token
Error installing / updating
 File Transfer failed, reason: Cannot remove directory /homepages/24/d451754577/htdocs/profiles/openenterprise/modules/token/..
filefield_sources
Error installing / updating
 File Transfer failed, reason: Cannot remove directory /homepages/24/d451754577/htdocs/profiles/openenterprise/modules/filefield_sources/..
ctools
Error installing / updating
 File Transfer failed, reason: Cannot remove directory /homepages/24/d451754577/htdocs/profiles/openenterprise/modules/ctools/..


There appears to be a bug in the Drupal code that did not appear on PHP 5.3 ( as PHP 5.3 itself has a bug that inhibits the Drupal Bug ).

The fix has already been proposed, and should wind up in the Drupal core at some point in the future, but if like me, you are facing this issue now, the fix is rather simple.

  • Download the Patch found here ( using wget <url> )
  • patch <drupal_core>/includes/filetransfer/filetransfer.inc < [patch_file_name]

Now you should be able to update your modules.