Just a heads up for those with Linux and XAMPP (or possibly other Apache LAMPS)... you don't need to chmod your folders/files - this is a bit of a side effect fix.
By default XAMPP sets up Apache to use: User=nobody and Group=nogroup. My /wp-content permissions showed User=www-data and Group=www-data. Left like this, well, this is why chmod = 777 is needed....
Instead, edit Apache's http.conf file and change the User and Group assignments to "www-data" or whatever is correct for your install. Restart Apache. Now new folders/files can be created by WordPress when on the localhost without special folder permissions.
My file locations:
-
/opt/lampp/htdocs/wordpress/wp-content
/opt/lampp/etc/http.conf
Wordpress 3.5.1, XAMPP Linux 1.8.1, Linux Mint 13 Maya