Increase file upload size limit in PHP-Nginx

If Nginx aborts your connection when uploading large files, you will see something like below in Nginx’s error logs:

[error] 25556#0: *52 client intended to send too large body:

This means, you need to increase PHP file-upload size limit. Following steps given below will help you troubleshoot this!

Changes in php.ini

To change max file upload size to 100MB

Edit…


			vim /etc/php5/fpm/php.ini

Set…


			upload_max_filesize = 100M
post_max_size = 100M

Notes:

Technically, post_max_size should always be larger than upload_max_filesize but for large numbers like 100M you can safely make them equal.
There is another variable max_input_time which can limit upload size but I have never seen it creating any issue. If your application supports uploads of file-size in GBs, you may need to adjust it accordingly. I am using PHP-FPM behind Nginx from very long time and I think in such kind of setup, its Nginx to which a client uploads file and then Nginx copies it to PHP. As Nginx to PHP copying will be local operation max_input_time may never create issue. I also believe Nginx may not copy the file but merely hand-over the location of file or descriptor records to PHP!

You may like to read these posts which explains PHP file upload related config in some details.

Change in Nginx config

Add following line to http{..} block in nginx config:


			http {
    #...
        client_max_body_size 100m;
    #...
}

Note: For very large files, you may need to change value of client_body_timeout parameter. Default is 60s.

Reload PHP-FPM & Nginx


			service php5-fpm reload
service nginx reload

Changes in WordPress-Multisite

If you are running WordPress Multisite setup, then you may need to make one more change at the WordPress end.

Go to: Network Admin Dashboard >> Settings. Look for Upload Settings

Also change value for Max upload file size

Max-Upload-file-size-WordPress-Multisite

More…

Debugging PHP Scripts Using slow_log and more

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Comments

Christian Varga

November 27, 2012

That final line was the one I needed, no other articles mention it. This should be the top result in Google. Cheers!
1. Rahul Bansal
  
  August 8, 2013
  
  Thanks for appreciation. 🙂
Mike

April 7, 2013

Hey I’m having this same issue and I can’t figure it out to save my self I want to be able to upload files up to 300mb but my server doesn’t let me. Please help.
1. Rahul Bansal
  
  April 8, 2013
  
  Apart from steps mentioned in above article, you may need to change memory_limit in php.ini file.
  
  Better would be to check error logs. You will see exact reason why 300MB files are not uploading properly. It might be the case that they are getting uploaded but are failing to process.
Farzana Neha

June 20, 2013

Thanks for the tips on how to increase file limit on nginx server. At first I edited php.ini file but it didn’t work properly. After checking your tips I just edited nginx.conf file and now it’s working perfectly.

Thanks!
1. Rahul Bansal
  
  August 8, 2013
  
  There are few more things where PHP & Nginx both need changes. Coming from Apache background, most of the time its hard to anticipate! I had spent hours myself when I was new to nginx to find out this.
  
  Glad to know it helped. 🙂
Jeffrey Adik

July 11, 2013

the multisite config had slipped my attention – many thanks… very helpful!
1. Rahul Bansal
  
  August 8, 2013
  
  We use multisite setup for on many client server. That’s how we managed to find out that setting.
  
  Glad to know it helped. 🙂
Kyle

August 7, 2013

I just HAD to leave a comment to say how much this helped me. I’ve been scouring the web for a solution to my 413 error and just knew it had something to do with nginx. Much appreciated.
1. Rahul Bansal
  
  August 8, 2013
  
  Glad to know it helped. 🙂
David Radovanovic

September 12, 2013

Works beautifully. Thanks for the concise and easy-to-understand instructions for a nginx novice like me.
1. Rahul Bansal
  
  October 14, 2013
  
  @David
  
  Glad to know it helped. 🙂
Paul Grieselhuber

October 14, 2013

Gold. This site has been invaluable for getting ramped up on Nginx and solving little quirks along the way. Thanks!
1. Rahul Bansal
  
  October 14, 2013
  
  @David
  
  Thanks for appreciation. I hope you will find other tutorials in this series useful as well.
Robson

October 17, 2013

Salved my magento, thank you very much
sam

November 29, 2013

I tried it. But its didn’t works.

I tried it in http {} and server {}

my php setting is huge.

Maximum HTTP POST size === 200M Maximum file upload size == 100M Maximum execution time == 30000 Maximum input parsing time = 60000

Nginx config
client_max_body_size 100m;

uploading file size is 3 MB
1. Rahul Bansal
  
  November 29, 2013
  
  Did you restart PHP-FPM and Nginx?
  
  If yes, please check for error log. There could be some other issue.
Nikolay

December 24, 2013

very GOOD !!!
Mark Greenall

January 11, 2014

This is a good tutorial – thanks.
Thanks

February 17, 2014

I just comment to say thank you Rahul..it save me lot of hours finding solution in the web.your solution is easy to follow and concise nothing i find in google like yours,everyone is just copy cat with other website lol!.again thank so much for your time and effort.peace!