Update from 3.9.6 to 3.9.8 - Cannot open LICENSE.txt for writing

[VMSystems]

I got this dropped in my lap and am totally new to Joomla.

I was able to install a plugin but not perform the update. The error "Error: Could not open (path)/LICENSE.txt for writing." stops in the beginning. The root directory has no such file.

I see the root directory has some restrictions on one user which MAY be the joomla account but I'm not sure due to lack of documentation. It IS the only non-admin user in the security tab. I don't want to just add modify and write permissions and risk opening up a huge security hole.

Thanks in advance for the feedback. This seems like a great forum.

Here is the post assistant output:

in Unknown on line 0

Joomla! Instance :: Joomla! 3.9.6-Stable (Amani) 7-May-2019
Joomla! Platform :: Joomla Platform 13.1.0-Stable (Curiosity) 24-Apr-2013
Joomla! Configured :: Yes | Read-Only (444) | Owner: --protected-- . (uid: /gid: ) | Group: --protected-- (gid: ) | Valid For: 3.9
Configuration Options :: Offline: false | SEF: true | SEF Suffix: false | SEF ReWrite: true | .htaccess/web.config: Yes | GZip: false | Cache: false | CacheTime: 15 | CacheHandler: file | CachePlatformPrefix: false | FTP Layer: false | Proxy: false | LiveSite: | Session lifetime: 15 | Session handler: database | Shared sessions: false | SSL: 0 | Error Reporting: maximum | Site Debug: false | Language Debug: false | Default Access: 1 | Unicode Slugs: false | dbConnection Type: mysqli | PHP Supports J! 3.9.6: Yes | Database Supports J! 3.9.6: Yes | Database Credentials Present: Yes |

Host Configuration :: OS: Windows NT | OS Version: 6.3 | Technology: AMD64 | Web Server: Microsoft-IIS/8.5 | Encoding: gzip, deflate | Doc Root: --protected-- | System TMP Writable: Yes | Free Disk Space : 4614.35 GiB |

PHP Configuration :: Version: 7.1.1 | PHP API: cgi-fcgi | Session Path Writable: Yes | Display Errors: | Error Reporting: 22527 | Log Errors To: C:\Windows\temp\PHP71x64_errors.log | Last Known Error: 19th August 2019 23:19:55. | Register Globals: | Magic Quotes: | Safe Mode: | Allow url fopen: 1 | Open Base: | Uploads: 1 | Max. Upload Size: 10M | Max. POST Size: 10M | Max. Input Time: 60 | Max. Execution Time: 300 | Memory Limit: 128M

Database Configuration :: Version: 5.7.18-log (Client:mysqlnd 5.0.12-dev - 20150407 - $Id: b396954eeb2d1d9ed7902b8bae237b287f21ad9e $) | Host: --protected-- (--protected--) | default Collation: utf8_general_ci (default Character Set: utf8) | Database Size: 12.31 MiB | #of Tables:  83

PHP Extensions :: Core (7.1.1) | bcmath (7.1.1) | calendar (7.1.1) | ctype (7.1.1) | date (7.1.1) | filter (7.1.1) | hash (1.0) | iconv (7.1.1) | json (1.5.0) | mcrypt (7.1.1) | SPL (7.1.1) | pcre (7.1.1) | readline (7.1.1) | Reflection (7.1.1) | session (7.1.1) | standard (7.1.1) | mysqlnd (mysqlnd 5.0.12-dev - 20150407 - $Id: b396954eeb2d1d9ed7902b8bae237b287f21ad9e $) | tokenizer (7.1.1) | zip (1.13.5) | zlib (7.1.1) | libxml (7.1.1) | dom (20031129) | PDO (7.1.1) | openssl (7.1.1) | SimpleXML (7.1.1) | xml (7.1.1) | wddx (7.1.1) | xmlreader (7.1.1) | xmlwriter (7.1.1) | cgi-fcgi () | mysqli (7.1.1) | mbstring (7.1.1) | gd (7.1.1) | gettext (7.1.1) | curl (7.1.1) | exif (1.4 $Id: 8bdc0c8f27c2c9dd1f7551f1f9fe3ab57a06a4b1 $) | xmlrpc (7.1.1) | Phar (2.0.2) | soap (7.1.1) | pdo_mysql (7.1.1) | pdo_sqlite (7.1.1) | imap (7.1.1) | tidy (7.1.1) | wincache (2.0.0.8) | Zend Engine (3.1.0) |
Potential Missing Extensions ::

Switch User Environment (Experimental) :: PHP CGI: Yes | Server SU: No | PHP SU: Yes | Custom SU (LiteSpeed/Cloud/Grid): Yes
Potential Ownership Issues: No

Core Folders :: images/ (777) | components/ (777) | modules/ (777) | plugins/ (777) | language/ (777) | templates/ (777) | cache/ (777) | logs/ (---) | tmp/ (777) | administrator/components/ (777) | administrator/modules/ (777) | administrator/language/ (777) | administrator/templates/ (777) | administrator/logs/ (777) |

Elevated Permissions (First 10) :: administrator/ (777) | administrator/cache/ (777) | administrator/components/ (777) | administrator/components/com_actionlogs/ (777) | administrator/components/com_actionlogs/controllers/ (777) | administrator/components/com_actionlogs/helpers/ (777) | administrator/components/com_actionlogs/layouts/ (777) | administrator/components/com_actionlogs/libraries/ (777) | administrator/components/com_actionlogs/models/ (777) | administrator/components/com_actionlogs/models/fields/ (777) |

Database statistics :: Uptime: 1576247 | Threads: 1 | Questions: 1169551 | Slow queries: 0 | Opens: 3873 | Flush tables: 1 | Open tables: 1741 | Queries per second avg: 0.741 |

Components :: SITE ::
Core :: com_mailto (3.0.0) 1 | com_wrapper (3.0.0) 1 |
3rd Party:: WF_AGGREGATOR_DAILYMOTION_TITLE (2.7.16) ? | WF_AGGREGATOR_VIMEO_TITLE (2.7.16) ? | WF_AGGREGATOR_[youtube]_TITLE (2.7.16) ? | WF_FILESYSTEM_JOOMLA_TITLE (2.7.16) ? | WF_LINKS_JOOMLALINKS_TITLE (2.7.16) ? | WF_POPUPS_JCEMEDIABOX_TITLE (2.7.16) ? | WF_LINK_SEARCH_TITLE (2.7.16) ? | WF_ANCHOR_TITLE (2.7.16) ? | WF_ARTICLE_TITLE (2.7.16) ? | WF_AUTOSAVE_TITLE (2.7.16) ? | WF_BROWSER_TITLE (2.7.16) ? | WF_CHARMAP_TITLE (2.7.16) ? | WF_CLEANUP_TITLE (2.7.16) ? | WF_CLIPBOARD_TITLE (2.7.16) ? | WF_CONTEXTMENU_TITLE (2.7.16) ? | WF_DIRECTIONALITY_TITLE (2.7.16) ? | WF_EMOTIONS_TITLE (2.7.16) ? | WF_FONTCOLOR_TITLE (2.7.16) ? | WF_FONTSELECT_TITLE (2.7.16) ? | WF_FONTSIZESELECT_TITLE (2.7.16) ? | WF_FORMATSELECT_TITLE (2.7.16) ? | WF_FULLSCREEN_TITLE (2.7.16) ? | WF_HR_TITLE (2.7.16) ? | WF_IMGMANAGER_TITLE (2.7.16) ? | WF_INLINEPOPUPS_TITLE (2.7.13) ? | WF_KITCHENSINK_TITLE (2.7.16) ? | WF_LAYER_TITLE (2.7.16) ? | WF_LINK_TITLE (2.7.16) ? | WF_LISTS_TITLE (2.7.16) ? | WF_MEDIA_TITLE (2.7.16) ? | WF_NONBREAKING_TITLE (2.7.16) ? | WF_PREVIEW_TITLE (2.7.16) ? | WF_PRINT_TITLE (2.7.16) ? | WF_SEARCHREPLACE_TITLE (2.7.16) ? | WF_SOURCE_TITLE (2.7.16) ? | WF_SPELLCHECKER_TITLE (2.7.16) ? | WF_STYLE_TITLE (2.7.16) ? | WF_STYLESELECT_TITLE (2.7.16) ? | WF_TABLE_TITLE (2.7.16) ? | WF_TEXTCASE_TITLE (2.7.16) ? | WF_VISUALBLOCKS_TITLE (2.7.16) ? | WF_VISUALCHARS_TITLE (2.7.16) ? | WF_WORDCOUNT_TITLE (2.7.16) ? | WF_XHTMLXTRAS_TITLE (2.7.16) ? |

Components :: ADMIN ::
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3rd Party:: Akeeba (6.6.0) 1 | COM_JCE (2.7.16) 1 |

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Core :: mod_articles_archive (3.0.0) 1 | mod_articles_categories (3.0.0) 1 | mod_articles_category (3.0.0) 1 | mod_articles_latest (3.0.0) 1 | mod_articles_news (3.0.0) 1 | mod_articles_popular (3.0.0) 1 | mod_banners (3.0.0) 1 | mod_breadcrumbs (3.0.0) 1 | mod_custom (3.0.0) 1 | mod_feed (3.0.0) 1 | mod_finder (3.0.0) 1 | mod_footer (3.0.0) 1 | mod_languages (3.5.0) 1 | mod_login (3.0.0) 1 | mod_menu (3.0.0) 1 | mod_random_image (3.0.0) 1 | mod_related_items (3.0.0) 1 | mod_search (3.0.0) 1 | mod_stats (3.0.0) 1 | mod_syndicate (3.0.0) 1 | mod_tags_popular (3.1.0) 1 | mod_tags_similar (3.1.0) 1 | mod_users_latest (3.0.0) 1 | mod_whosonline (3.0.0) 1 | mod_wrapper (3.0.0) 1 |
3rd Party::

Modules :: ADMIN ::
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3rd Party::

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Core ::
3rd Party::

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Templates :: SITE :: beez3 (3.1.0) 1 | protostar (1.0) 1 |
Templates :: ADMIN :: hathor (3.0.0) 1 | isis (1.0) 1 |

[AMurray]

It is clearly expecting the file to be there - maybe to overwrite, with a new (updated) copy for the Joomla update you're trying to do.....it's not an essential file, but you could try making a blank license.txt file in Windows Notepad, put it in the folder it should be and try the update again.

The file should be read/writable according to Windows file/folder settings, and the root folder should be read/writable.

If this was Linux we'd just advise the default settings 755 for folders, 644 for files. I'd assume you need to check the Windows OS server (IIS) for similar permissions settings to ensure they're readable and writable (both folder and files) as required. (I don't use Windows server so not familiar with it to make a informed answer and therefore this is only general advice), don't know anything beyond "ensure Joomla can read and write the file and the folder(s)."

I see the root directory has some restrictions on one user which MAY be the joomla account but I'm not sure due to lack of documentation. It IS the only non-admin user in the security tab. I don't want to just add modify and write permissions and risk opening up a huge security hole.

Not sure what "only non-admin user in the security tab" you're talking about here The default settings for Joomla user levels out of the box are correctly set. The Super User doesn't usually have to have anything adjusted to perform either extension installation or joomla core updates. It sounds like this permission setting is at the server (IIS) level external to Joomla.

I was able to install a plugin but not perform the update. The error "Error: Could not open (path)/LICENSE.txt for writing." stops in the beginning. The root directory has no such file

By "not able to perform the update", assume you mean the Joomla update (to 3.9.11)
Suggest reviewing some of those PHP settings such as Max post size and Max file upload size; increase 10M to 64M.

Hoping I've addressed some issues of the question, but I'm sure others will pipe in with their answers. We all learn something from others contributions .