Elgg needs a special folder to store uploaded files including profile icons and photos. You will need to create this directory.
Warning
For security reasons, this folder MUST be stored outside of your document root. If you created it under /www/ or /public_html/, you’re doing it wrong.
Once this folder has been created, you’ll need to make sure the web server Elgg is running on has permission to write to and create directories in it. This shouldn’t be a problem on Windows-based servers, but if your server runs Linux, Mac OS X or a UNIX variant, you’ll need to set the permissions on the directory.
If you are using a graphical FTP client to upload files, you can usually set permissions by right clicking on the folder and selecting ‘properties’ or ‘Get Info’.
Note
Directories must be executable to be read and written to. The suggested permissions depend upon the exact server and user configuration. If the data directory is owned by the web server user, the recommended permissions are 770.
Setting your data directory to 777 will work, but it is insecure and is not recommended. If you are unsure how to correctly set permissions, contact your host for more information.