WordPress site stuck at 1MB for max file size

Question

I have the following settings in php.ini:

upload_max_filesize = 100M
post_max_size = 100M
max_execution_time = 300

My .htaccess file is empty and there is no function about uploading file size.

But still I can not upload file larger than 1MB. It gives HTTP error. (p.s. Page shows the maximum upload file size 100MB as I set, but not upload more than 1MB. Gives http error)

What may be the issue and how can I resolve it?

Answer 1

I had the very same problem. None of googled articles suggesting trivial solutions (like "resize image", "wait a bit") helped.

Symptoms: media uploading works perfectly, but only for some files (larger than 1Mb) the "HTTP error" occurs.

But when I tried to check my web server logs, everything became clear in one second. I suppose you use nginx (as I do), so:

1. Check nginx logs: tail /var/log/nginx/error.log
2. If you see errors like 10899 client intended to send too large body: 1198151 bytes, client: <IP address>, server: example.com, request: “POST /wp-admin/async-upload.php HTTP/1.1”, host: “example.com”, referrer: “http://example.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=<post id>&action=edit” than it's easy - your webserver is blocking requests larger than 1 Mb (nginx default)
3. So modify your nginx config sudo vi /etc/nginx/nginx.conf
4. Insert client_max_body_size 20M; somewhere in the [http] section.
5. Restart nginx sudo /etc/init.d/nginx restart or sudo service nginx reload
6. Check your site and make sure it works (or at least there are no more nginx errors in the log)

Reference: https://websistent.com/fix-client-intended-to-send-too-large-body-nginx-error/

Answer 2

Although you can change the php.ini file, and other settings, I just use the "Upload Max File Size" plugin (https://wordpress.org/plugins/upload-max-file-size/ ).

Even though it hasn't been updated for 2 years, it still works for me. (What changes would need to be done to this simple plugin anyhow?) You do have to enter the file size in bytes, so a bit of math involved to get the number you want.

I suppose that I could dig into the plugin to see how it works, then manually change things. But it was much easier to use the plugin - it works fine for my purposes.