Wordpress issue. Artificial storage cap?
CB
Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄ƷDer Millionendorf- Icrontian
I'm getting this error message when I try to upload new media files to my Wordpress blog:
"An error occurred in the upload. Please try again later."
If I reload, I find that a file was created with the name of the file I was trying to upload, but it is only 1KB, and contains no information.
If I delete some old files, it lets me upload new ones again, so I think I might be running up against an artificial storage limit. I still have many GB left on my file host, so that's not where the limit is coming in.
Searching the greater web, I've found several other threads which say I can change the site's artificial storage limit by going to Settings > Network, but I don't have 'Network' under my settings.
I've tried asking for help on Wordpress.com forums and on wordpress.org forums, but my question has gone ignored.
Can anyone here help?
Comments
There is no setting in wordpress for a file storage limit that I know of. The first step is to check the php error logs on the webserver right after you do a failed upload.
Most likely scenario in my mind is you are running out of process memory on the webserver (not physically, but against a php set memory limit) and that the file you are trying to upload is rather large. Maybe a super high res image. The error logs should shine light.
We ran into this on the OCZ forum. Check with the host for file upload space and allowed file size? I think a lot of them have a 2MB limit unless you ask them to raise it?
The file doesn't have to be large to cause the error. One of the files I'm trying to upload is about 1700KB. I've uploaded files as large as 20MB in the past. I have a storage limit of 250GB with my hosting service, and I've got like 30GB on there currently.
Where would the PHP error logs be?
How to access your php error logs is a question for the host, it depends from host to host. If you have "cpanel" you should be able to find them in there.
I located this help page for my hosting service, but it's too technical for me. I don't know what to do here. It looks like some tags I have to add to a config somewhere, but I don't get where I'm supposed to put them.
https://help.1and1.com/hosting-c37630/scripts-and-programming-languages-c85099/php-c37728/enable-error-logs-a792503.html
Can you try lowering the resolution of your images you are uploading? I really think you are running out of memory as wordpress is attempting to resize the images which are probably large scans or straight from your digicam. It's not a storage issue or a filesize issue as much as it is 1&1 does not allocate very much memory for php to do these processes.
Here is a plugin that can do it for you:
https://wordpress.org/plugins/resize-images-before-upload/
or you can use image editing software before attempting to upload.
That way WordPress will use way less memory during the resize.
If that doesn't work then I'd open a support ticket with 1&1 both mentioning your problem and asking them to enable php logging for you.
Dan
One of the files is a small MP3 and another is a 1000x500 JPG, it has no reason to do anything to those files other than store them, and I've uploaded larger MP3s in the past with no trouble (the largest image on the site is less than 1000x1000 because I always resize the long edge of any graphic down to 1000 (at most) before I upload).
Also, you're ignoring that I CAN upload if I delete other stuff first, that's why I think that WP thinks it's having a storage problem, but I can only use that work around for so long before I start borking old posts.
I'll write a note to 1&1 in the morning, asking after error logs.
Wordpress resizes images. That process uses memory. It doesn't resize mp3s. I'm not trying to ignore anything I just don't think you are running in to a storage problem. I'll stop assuming until we have logs to look at.
That doesn't explain this symptom: "If I delete some old files, it lets me upload new ones again"
My guess is that the WordPress uploads are aren't respecting @CB's disk quota. Maybe because they are owned by a general Apache user on a shared host and the Apache user's quota is full? That would be something for your hosting provider to diagnose.
Do you have a large volume of files (like actual number of files) in the folder? Is that folder on a shared filesystem with a lot of users that also may have a large number of files?
If you have shell access - When you are getting the error from wordpress, will it allow you to create a file in the wp-content folder that way?
If you have shell access - Can you execute "df -i"?
If you have shell access and you can execute "df -i", does anything show 100% under the IUse% column?
@georgeh I know I ignored that. It's because I believe that symptom is a correlation with the root problem. Wordpress has a very specific error message for the situation of running out of storage space during a media upload. It's an easy to catch error. Instead we are getting a generic error here which occurs when WordPress doesn't know what went wrong. That generally indicates a php script in the background stopped running for one reason or another. That usually happens during media uploads if there is an uncaught memory issue. That's why, I think, we need to see the php error logs.
I don't have shell access.
I did take a look at the files in the raw (through an FTP client), while I wait for a response from 1&1. I think I get what @PirateNinja is saying now. WP actively re-sizes even when it doesn't need to. There are like five copies of every file I've ever uploaded, each a different resolution that I don't need. That's crazy face. But here's more: There are many un-re-sized copies of the files I was trying to upload sitting in the directory also, so the files are uploading, and the error is coming when it tries to re-size the files, and that lack of re-sizing means they are not showing up properly in the WP interface, I guess. That seems like a terrible way to run things. I had no idea it was doing so much re-sizing in the background.
I'd highly recommend that plugin I mentioned @CB , it will use your local browser to perform the resizes via javascript (so the cpu/memory of your own computer/browser) and leave PHP and your webserver out of it. Then it will upload the resized images and you should be good to go. It is useful to have the multiple image sizes for WordPress for a number of reasons, but I admit the implementation of it in stock WordPress is clumsy.
The alternative is getting 1&1 to configure php to allow more memory, pref 128mb+, for the resize process. I don't know anything about 1&1 but that could be an annoying support request.
Okay. I installed the plug-in you suggested, and now, suddenly uploading works again.
I don't really get it, especially why it was a problem now when it had never been a problem in the past and nothing had changed, but I guess everybody takes a turn at being the guy who just doesn't get it, and this is my turn.
I won't complain. I'm glad it's working. Sorry I didn't try your suggestion right away.
There's no need to apologize, it was just a lucky guess on my end. My other guess is that it suddenly stopped working because your WordPress was updated to a newer version that does more image resizing and in turn uses more memory on the server. But it could also be a configuration change that occurred on your web server. Who knows
Just happy to hear you are problem free for a bit. WordPress can be picky. I always recommend WPEngine to avoid this stuff, but understandably not everyone wants to spend $30/mo to host their website.
It's probably the version update. I have several WordPress instances hosted on 1and1 servers as well, and I've received a few auto update notifications lately.
Also, CB, if you haven't already done so you might want to go into your 1and1 admin control panel and make sure your selected PHP version is up to date.
My 1&1 PHP version panel says 'no version selected' with a yellow triangle and an exclamation point.