Images will not upload? Can't view images through opencart

Hey, I am a newb and this is my first time setting up a website. I am having trouble viewing, and uploading images through Opencart. I can view the stock images through my FTP but I cannot copy them off the site.

As far as a FTP, I am using: SmartFTP

I have Chmoded the Image folder along with all of the files that are in it to "777"

I went through the checklist during install to make sure that all the files are writable...

What am I doing wrong?

Also, the Magic_quotes is turned on and I don't know how to turn them off.

It's not only an issue with permissions, but file ownership.

If your FTP client doesn't give you an option to change ownership (either graphically or through the "chown" command), download a copy of WinSCP and use it to get into the server (same FTP credentials).

Once you're connected, right-click on a file or folder and click "Properties". From that menu, you can change who "owns" the file. Usually, in order for the OpenCart Admin to be able to upload images, the image folder must be owned by user "nobody" in group "nobody", but I heard this may vary based on the type of server (Apache vs IIS, etc).

I'm facing the same problem. Before everything works perfectly, but after a while (i started add google analytic plug in, put some adsense) i can't upload images for my new product. Tried all the solution above (change permission to 777 in specified folder, delete/rename cache folder) nothing works. But after i turn the error log on, i found out that there are some error while running the filemanager.php in the \admin\controller\common folder. So after googling, found out that i need to add below script "@chmod($directory . '/' . basename($this->request->files['image']['name']), 0644);" before the error line. Now the upload runs normal on the new folder (I still can't upload to existing folder), but at least i still can upload new product picture for my site.