Are you seeing the HTTP error while uploading media in WordPress? This error usually occurs when you are uploading an image or other files to WordPress using the built-in media uploader. In this article, we will show you how to easily fix the HTTP image upload error in WordPress.
What Causes HTTP Error During Media Upload in WordPress?
There are a number of things that could lead to a HTTP error when you are trying to upload files using the WordPress media uploader. Basically, WordPress is unable to figure out the cause and that’s why it displays the generic ‘HTTP error’ message.
The frustrating part is that this error message doesn’t give you any clue as to what may have caused it. This means that you will have to try different solutions to find the cause and fix the error.
That being said, let’s take a look at how to troubleshoot and fix the HTTP error during media upload in WordPress.
1. Make Sure The HTTP Error is Not Temporary
First, you should wait a few minutes and then try uploading your image file again. This error is sometimes caused by unusual traffic and low server resources, which are automatically fixed on most WordPress hosting servers.
If that doesn’t work, then you may want to try uploading a different image file. If the other file uploads successfully, then try saving your original image file to a smaller size and retry uploading.
Lastly, you may want to try saving the file to a different format. For example, change jpeg to png using an image editing software. After that, retry uploading the file.
If all these steps result in the HTTP error, then this means that the error is not caused by a temporary glitch and definitely needs your immediate attention.
2. Increase WordPress Memory Limit
The most common cause of this error is lack of memory available for WordPress to use. To fix this, you need to increase the amount of memory PHP can use on your server.
You can do this by adding the following code to your wp-config.php file.
define( 'WP_MEMORY_LIMIT', '256M' );
This code increases the WordPress memory limit to 256MB, which would be enough to fix any memory limit issues.
3. Change Image Editor Library Used by WordPress
WordPress runs on PHP which uses two modules to handle images. These modules are called GD Library and Imagick. WordPress may use either one of them depending on which one is available.
However, Imagick is known to often run into memory issues causing the http error during image uploads. To fix this, you can make the GD Library your default image editor.
You can do this by simply adding this code to your theme’s functions.php file or a site-specific plugin.
function wpb_image_editor_default_to_gd( $editors ) {
$gd_editor = 'WP_Image_Editor_GD';
$editors = array_diff( $editors, array( $gd_editor ) );
array_unshift( $editors, $gd_editor );
return $editors;
}
add_filter( 'wp_image_editors', 'wpb_image_editor_default_to_gd' );
After adding this code, you can retry uploading files using the media uploader. If this doesn’t solve the issue, then you can remove this code and try other methods described in this article.
4. Using The .htaccess Method
This method allows you to control how Imagick uses server resources. Many shared hosting providers limit Imagick’s ability to use multiple threads for faster image processing. However, this would result in you seeing the http error when uploading images.
An easy fix is be to add the following code in your .htaccess file:
SetEnv MAGICK_THREAD_LIMIT 1
This code simply limits Imagick to use a single thread to process images.
We hope this article helped you fix the HTTP error during media upload in WordPress. You may also want to see our WordPress troubleshooting guide as well as the ultimate list of most common WordPress errors and how to fix them.
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#2 worked for me. Easy peasy. Thanks for helping me fix it.
Hey William,
Glad you found it helpful. Don’t forget to join us on Twitter for more WordPress tips and tutorials.
This issue really stressed me up. No 3 solved my problem.
Thanks
3 worked for me too. I copied right at the end of function.php in Appearance > editor of WordPress
Hi there,
Option 3 is working for me! Thank you so much this was driving me insane!!!
Before I tried any of these solutions. I tried logging out of WordPress and logging back in, and suddenly I stopped getting the error message. So, you might want to try that first.
I’ve noticed that this keeps happening to me with files that contain apostrophes in the filename. When I remove it, they upload fine
Perhaps try to remove the ‘ ?
THANK YOU! Removing the ‘ worked for me
Thank you! This was driving me crazy, had been trying to solve this for a friend for days
No. 3 works, thanks.
None of these worked for me. After some more researching, I found that putting this bit of code at the bottom of the .htaccess worked for me:
# Exclude the file upload and WP CRON scripts from authentication
Satisfy Any
Order allow,deny
Allow from all
Deny from none
Don’t forget to back up your .htaccess file first just in case!
None worked. Pls help!
Number 4 worked for me!!! Thanks so much!
No. 3 worked a charm.
Thank you so much!
Please can will this solutions work on a localhost installation of wordpress?
These methods should work with localhost, the memory limit may need to be modified using the program for your server such as MAMP or WAMP
Option number three fixed my problem guys, thank you. Have a great day.
3. Change Image Editor Library Used by WordPress.
Its Working for me! Yuppiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii
Thanks Syed Balkhi
My blog shows me “An error occurred in the upload. Please try again later.”. Please what should I do?
Try again later
Tried all to no avail UNTIL i added the code to the functions.php file. A BIG thank you!
Adding that line to my .htaccess file did the trick! Thanks!
i did all the above changes in my site still image is not uploading, please help me to resolve this issue (http error)
THANK YOU! Changing the image editor worked for me.
For me, the issue was a series of pictures with an apostrophe in the title. Renamed and it worked fine.
I need help resolving the HTTP error when uploading large files. Someone else created my site with an upload size limit of 64Mb. I am trying to upload audio files that are sometimes larger than 64Mb. I added a plug-in (Upload Max File Size) to change my max upload size to 128Mb. I changed memory_limit in PHP.ini to 256M. I change max_execution_time in PHP.ini to 300. I set memory_limit in wp-config to 256M. I changed memory_limit in .htaccess to 256M. I tried adding the code to .htaccess to force it to use the GD Library instead of Imagick. It didn’t work, so I remove that code and then added the line to limit Imagick to 1 thread. In spite of all of these changes, I still get the HTTP error when loading a file larger than 64Mb.
Any more ideas?
Thanks!
thanks a lot, I was trying to fix this from last 2 hour and after reading this article did it in just few sec and already tested thanks a lot
As a side note, another thing that can be giving you HTTP errors while uploading images is a configuration in you php.ini file, specifically the line “max_execution_time=30;”.
Some shared hosting providers limit PHP execution to a single core of the server, increasing the time it takes for PHP Imagick to get the image, process it and create thumbnails. So the suggestion is to increase max_execution_time to 120 seconds instead of the default 30 seconds.
Hello
In my case
function wpb_image_editor_default_to_gd( $editors ) {
$gd_editor = ‘WP_Image_Editor_GD’;
$editors = array_diff( $editors, array( $gd_editor ) );
array_unshift( $editors, $gd_editor );
return $editors;
}
add_filter( ‘wp_image_editors’, ‘wpb_image_editor_default_to_gd’ );
worked fine thanks
Php Memory limit 128Mo v 7.13 apache 2.4
One of the causes of an upload error is the fact that there is an apostrophe in the name of the file that you try to upload. For instance a picture called ‘Let’s_dance.jpg’ will give an error, while ‘Lets_dance.jpg’ can be uploaded without any problems.
This was the problem in my case, thank you so much!! Saved me a lot of hassle ^_^