Unlocking the Secrets of Uploading Large Files to WordPress

In a world where WordPress reigns supreme as one of the most widely used content management systems, users are often confounded by the challenge of uploading large files to their website. With the standard upload limit pegged at a measly 2 MB, content creators need to be tactical in their approach to uploading large files such as high-resolution images or video and audio files. but fear not, there are several options available to help you navigate this challenge.

Why You Might Need to Upload Large Files to WordPress

It’s no secret that content creators may need to upload large files to their WordPress for various reasons:

• High-resolution images: If you’re a photographer or visual artist, you need to upload high-quality images to showcase your work, and these files can be several megabytes.
• Video content: As a video producer, you might want to upload your videos to your website instead of YouTube or Vimeo, but video files can be very large, often over 100 MB.
• Audio files: As a musician or podcaster, you might want to offer your content as downloads on your website, and these files can be in their tens of megabytes in size.

Regardless of your reason for wanting to upload large files to WordPress, here are some options available to you.

Option 1: Increase WordPress’ File Upload Limit

The first and simple approach to uploading sizeable files on WordPress is to increase the file upload limit in WordPress. By default, WordPress limits the size of uploaded files to 2 MB, but you can raise this limit by modifying your website’s PHP.ini file or the .htaccess file. The former option requires the following steps:

1. Access your website’s files using an FTP client or through your web hosting’s control panel.
2. Search for the PHP.ini file. If it’s not there, create a new one.
3. Add this code: 64M to your PHP ini file:
• upload_max_filesize = 64M
• post_max_size = 64M
• max_execution_time = 300
4. Save the PHP.ini file and upload it to your website.

The above code increases the file upload limit to 64 MB, and increases the post size to match it meaning that users can upload much more oversized files than 2 MB. Additionally max_execution_time is included so that the upload process does not time out. You can also increase the file upload limit in WordPress by modifying the .htaccess file which entails the following steps:

1. Access your website’s files using an FTP client or through your web hosting’s control panel.
2. Search for the .htaccess file. If it’s not there, create a new one.
3. Add the following line of code to the file: php_value upload_max_filesize 64M.
4. Save the .htaccess file and upload it to your website.

This code also increases the file upload limit to 64 MB. But it’s important to note that not all web hosts allow you to amend the .htaccess file hence it’s critical to check with your host first.

Option 2: Use a Third-Party File Upload Plugin

The second option for uploading sizeable files to WordPress is to use a third-party file upload plugin. Several plugins are available that can help you manage file types, increase the file upload limit, and more. Such plugins include but aren’t limited to:

• WPForms: A popular form builder plugin that includes a file upload feature.
• FileBird: A plugin that helps you organize and manage your files in WordPress.
• WP File Download: A file manager plugin that includes file upload functionality.

Using a plugin to upload files to WordPress is quite simple because it takes care of the inevitable technical details. However, you’ll need to make sure the plugin is compatible with your version of WordPress and meets your needs.

Option 3: Use a Cloud Storage Solution

The third and final option of uploading oversized files on WordPress is to use a cloud storage solution. This method involves uploading large files to a separate cloud storage platform such as Google Drive or Dropbox, then linking to them from your WordPress site. Here’s how to execute this:

1. Upload your file to your cloud storage service of choice.
2. Copy the generated link to your clipboard.
3. Use the “Add Media” button in WordPress to create a new link to the file which you just uploaded.

This option doesn’t require any modifications to your WordPress site, and it’s an excellent choice if you want to share large files with others. However, it’s a bit tedious because you’ll have to maintain two distinct platforms: your WordPress site and cloud storage service.

Conclusion

There you go, and now you are armed with different simple methods to upload massive files to WordPress without hassles. However, bear in mind that uploading oversized files can negatively affect your website’s performance, so remember to optimize your images and videos before uploading them. Best of luck as you navigate WordPress uploading!