Problems uploading large files can be due to several factors. For example, the service you are trying to upload the file to may have run out of available space. This guide describes how to find out what is using the most space, and this one describes how to upgrade the service if you can’t find any data to clear out.
Controlling upload size in general
Via cPanel you can control the size of files that can be uploaded via browsers/websites. This is done under the Select PHP version icon described in this guide (section “How do I manage PHP settings?”).
The settings that are relevant to change for uploading files are post_max_size and upload_max_filesize.
If the service you are trying to upload the file to has plenty of free space and the two variables above are adjusted, there may be other restrictions blocking the upload. When uploading through the browser, the maximum size for file uploads is 500 MB per file. If this limit is reached, an error message similar to the following is displayed:
Request body size: XXX is too big!
The 500 MB limit is fixed and cannot be changed, but there are ways to get round it, which we will go through in this guide.
If you have a Managed Server with us, we may be able to change the maximum upload size limit. Contact our support and we will take it further that way.
General uploads of large files
If you need to upload large files to your web hosting account, the easiest and most secure way to do this is via SSH/SFTP. The following guide can help you with this:
Connect via SSH to a web hosting account
Large uploads in WordPress
Note that the plugin only assists in uploading files through WordPress’ own media manager, not migration plugins.
If you have media files and similar that you want to upload to your WordPress installation, the Big File Uploads plugin can be helpful. It utilises a feature called chunking, where the large files are uploaded in multiple chunks that are then joined together once the upload is complete.
Moving a large WordPress installation
If you intend to move a WordPress installation to a web hosting account with us and use a migration plugin such as All-in-One WP Migration, this will only work if the file created by the plugin before the move is less than 500 MB. If the file/site is larger than that, you need to use another migration tool, such as Akeeba.
Uploading large files via self-written code
Please note that we are not able to provide support or troubleshooting on self-written code.
If you have written your own application that supports file uploads, you will need to implement support for chunking if files larger than 500 MB are to be uploaded. There are various libraries that can help you get started with chunking, one such example is Plupload (works with PHP and Javascript). How to use this library is not something we can provide support on, but they have extensive documentation available on their website.
If you don’t want to use a ready-made library, this guide can point you in the right direction if you want to code yourself. Please note that as we did not write this guide ourselves, we cannot guarantee that what is mentioned there works, nor can we provide support for it.