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When the size of the file that you’re trying to upload to your website exceeds the uploading file size limit, you’ll be given an error and the process will stop. The error will notify you that the attempted upload is bigger than the allowed limit, and it will prompt you to increase the max uploading size. For people who don’t have an idea about why this error occurs and how to resolve it, this situation could be unnecessarily annoying and alarming. Turns out, there is an easy fix.

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What is the Upload Max Filesize?

The ‘upload_max_filesize’ value is what decides the limit of the file size that can be uploaded to a website. When this value is set to a certain number of bytes, all uploads beyond it will be turned down and will fail to be uploaded. By default, this value is set to 2 MBs in PHP. That is a low threshold, and nowadays, with newer websites and applications, it can be quite insufficient.

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How to increase the PHP Max Upload Size in cPanel?

With cPanel, it’s very easy to increase the max upload size:
  1. Head over to the main menu in cPanel. Go under Software and open Select PHP version.
  2. Click on Options and scroll down to ‘upload_max_filesize’.
  3. From the drop-down menu, set the maximum file size you would like. That’s it.

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Some things to remember

  • When increasing the uploading max filesize, the post max size should be equal to or greater than the upload max filesize. There is another value called the ‘Memory limit’, and this should be larger or equal to the post max size as well: Upload Max Filesize ≤ Post Max Size ≤ Memory Limit
  • This limit applies when uploading to the site directly, e.g. within the /wp-admin/media folder. The upload filesize within the File Manager in cPanel is up to 2GB.
  • If you need to upload larger files than 2GB, use FTP or SSH.

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How much should the max file size be increased?

The standard 2M limit is too low for most modern sites. How much you raise it depends on the type of files your site handles. For a site of written material and blog posts, 20M could be enough. For audio files, 30M or 40M could be sufficient. Setting the limit either too low or too high could be problematic, so calculate it based on your needs.

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Conclusion

If you are facing the file size exceeding the maximum upload limit error, you will need to increase the capacity by going to the PHP selector in cPanel. The process is straightforward.