How to Fix the 'HTTP Error' When Uploading Images to WordPress

What's happening

The "HTTP error" message on upload means your hosting server refused the image without saying why, most often because the file is too large or resizing it needs more memory than your host allows. It almost never means anything is seriously wrong with your site; everything else usually keeps working normally.

You drag an image into the media library, the progress bar creeps along, and then it stops with that red message. No explanation, no detail. Try again and it might work, or it might fail in exactly the same way. It's one of the most frustrating messages WordPress produces, because it tells you nothing at all.

Why it happens

Behind the scenes, WordPress hands your image to the hosting server to store and resize. A refusal usually comes down to size or resources: the file is bigger than your host allows, or processing it — resizing a large photo takes real memory — pushed past a limit.

The other common causes are a security or optimization plugin inspecting uploads and rejecting them, and modern camera or phone images in formats and file sizes far larger than a typical website expects. Very occasionally it's a genuine hiccup on the server that clears on its own. If an upload fails with "The link you followed has expired" instead, that's usually a size limit too: here's what that message means.

What you can safely try

• Wait a minute and try the same image again. Sometimes it's a momentary hiccup, and trying again costs you nothing.
• Try a noticeably smaller image, or resize a large photo before uploading. If the small one works, you've found the shape of the problem.
• Rename the file to something simple with no spaces, apostrophes, or accented characters, and make sure it ends in .jpg or .png.
• Try a different browser to rule out something local to yours.
• Don't start raising server limits by editing configuration files. Those files break sites when they're edited wrong, and the wrong limit raised in the wrong place fixes nothing.

When to call us

The real fix depends on which limit or plugin is doing the rejecting, and that's readable in your host's logs rather than guessable from the screen. We find the actual cause, raise the right limit or clear the right conflict, and confirm uploads work with the kind of files you actually use. If you're stuck unable to add images to your own site, send it our way.