Posted April 30th, 2008, in: Computer Problems and Fixes
Depending on how a server is set up, your WordPress installation might not allow you to upload files larger than say, 20 MB, or at least that’s how it was for me.
Upload form may give you an error saying “This file is too big. Your php.ini upload_max_filesize is 20M.” (or some other number)…
This is actually not really a problem with WordPress as much as it is a problem with your server’s php installation settings. Fortunately, it’s pretty easy to fix. If you see a file in your root directory called php.ini you can probably take care of this problem by following these intructions
However, if you are using 1and1 web hosting, like one of my recent clients, you wont see a php.ini file hangin around in your root directory. 1and1 doesn’t give you access to this file. Don’t cry. You can change the php.ini file, that you don’t have access to, by uploading a new one containing only the parameters you want to change, to every directory where you want the php rules to be changed, this means the root “/” the website’s folder if there is one “/website/” the sub-folder for wordpress if there is one “/blog/” and the directory called “/wp-admin/”
The file only needs to have these lines in it
upload_max_filesize = 100M
post_max_size = 30M
“M” stands for Megabyte, if that’s not completely obvious. And you can put any value you want here. I went with 100MB for uploads.
I’m leaning toward being cautious here. Probably you can just put one of these files into /wp-admin/ but I’m not sure. Also, you may be able to delete them once you put them in place and refresh the wordpress dashboard. I’m not sure about that either.
I eventually found this info after much googling here on 1and1′s page about this. Also included is how to do this using .htaccess which is what you need to do if have a Managed Server running PHP as an Apache Module.
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16 Responses to “Maximum File Size for Uploads In WordPress 2.5, 1and1 Web Hosting”
Andrew A. Peterson wrote on May 12th, 2008 1:29 am :
No, Nancy, I think that small business increasingly want to have the option to upload audio and video content.
Of course, such media will ideally be compressed for optimum web-viewing, but still, if you’re running WordPress on your own server, you should be able to upload files as big as you want, after all, it is your server.
The defaults of your server’s php configuration shouldn’t stand in the way of you doing whatever you decide you want to do.
20MB is plenty bit for pictures, but what if you want to upload an hour-long video?
Sheehan wrote on May 20th, 2008 4:40 pm :
Wow you are a life saver, thanks.
John wrote on May 22nd, 2008 2:31 pm :
Love you for this.
Arvind wrote on June 10th, 2008 9:29 pm :
Thanks buddy. Your page helped us. 
Eric Hamby wrote on June 17th, 2008 7:23 am :
lol i still cant get this to work at all. even worse when i get the error it says 20m but i get the error when uploading anything over 8meg. Everyone at 1and1 says its wp fault and everyone at wp says its 1and1 fault so i guess im just screwed.
Gratis Weblog wrote on February 17th, 2009 12:34 pm :
I think that small business increasingly want to have the option to upload audio and video content.
But is you have wordpress ad running on your own server then you must have the accessibility to upload audio and video files.
its good that you have 20mb as space for pictures and all but what about a video..
Rob Lyttle wrote on March 27th, 2009 8:08 pm :
Thanks Bro, I was having issues with my WP dashboard and theme editing pages no displaying. I copied your text and created the php.ini file, uploaded it to my root, subfolder and wp-admin folder. Worked great! Yes, I’m using 1and1.
Rob
chris wrote on April 1st, 2009 9:41 am :
really useful if like me you’re stuck with 1&1,
gratis: you can just set the max upload to be 1gb for video
optimum_prime wrote on May 4th, 2009 12:24 pm :
Thanks for the hints, worked for me with WP 2.7 and 1und1-hosting. You need both lines in your php.ini (in the wp-admin-directory), accidently i had at the first try only upload_max_filesize and not the post_max_size, and that didn’t worked.
Cheer_up,
op
Anton Karbanovich wrote on May 30th, 2009 4:22 pm :
Thank you so much!
put php.ini file every where but wp-admin and it DID NOT WORK… was ready to rip my hair…
after putting it in wp-admin it all worked fine!
thank you so much!
Will wrote on June 2nd, 2009 4:34 am :
ok you’ve got to help me out here… I did everything you said (and tried everything other’s have told me) and no one can seem to help. I upload 7.5m files fine but for anything over 8m it tells me that my php.ini upload_max_filesize is 20m
NipponTico wrote on August 7th, 2009 12:58 am :
Your simple instructions were far better than e-mails I exchanged with my “host”.
Thanks
Leann wrote on September 28th, 2009 10:55 pm :
This worked like a charm for me and was easy to understand. I was glad to find something specific to 1and1. Thanks!
Lancaster wrote on December 22nd, 2009 8:48 pm :
Thanks for this helpful information. Worked in the admin folder and using 1&1. No more message. Now to get the flash file upload to work.
Raize wrote on March 16th, 2010 2:04 pm :
Owe you big time for this! Hard to find information about increasing the upload limit in WordPress
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I Think That space is good for small websites , is that ?!!