Any issues with adjusting your .htaccess file fall under our Best Effort support policy. Best Effort does not include content management, coding or designing for your websites. We may also direct you to a better resource for your issue, such as Plugin Developer, Designer, Software Author, etc. Best Effort is not covered under the same SLA's as our supported services and does not guarantee any future support for any issue. Please understand that Best Effort issues may take longer to resolve.
Throughout your use of iThemes Hosting, you may find it necessary to update the memory limit, max file size, post size and execution time in PHP. Increasing these limits allows you to successfully post pictures, run scripts, publish posts, and allow your site to run more smoothly. Traditionally, when you host your WordPress site using a non-managed platform you would log into your site via SSH, and edit the php.ini file.
If you are unfamiliar with logging into your iThemes Hosting via SFTP and editing configuration files, contact a developer to assist you.
Because of server configurations, iThemes Hosting doesn’t allow modification of the php.ini file in order to configure PHP settings. Instead, PHP variable settings are available in the .htaccess file of your site. If you're unfamiliar with a .htaccess file, you can learn more in our article What Is a .htaccess File?
The initial settings for iThemes Hosting .htaccess PHP limits are:
php_value memory_limit 256M
php_value upload_max_filesize 10M
php_value post_max_size 10M
php_value max_execution_time 30
php_value max_input_time 60
You will notice, the PHP settings syntax is slightly different in iThemes Hosting than other WordPress PHP settings on a traditional server configuration. You must use php_value at the beginning of each line in order to change the PHP settings in iThemes Hosting.
When logging into your .htaccess file, you can scroll to the PHP section of the .htaccess file and change the limits. If one doesn't appear in the .htaccess file you can scroll to the bottom of the page and add one. Just make sure that you do not delete anything that is already set in your .htaccess file or you could break the site. They are set in Megabytes, so make sure to use the same syntax when making your changes. The limits shown below are the maximum limits that iThemes Hosting allows.
To increase your PHP settings to their max levels, make the following changes to your .htaccess file:
php_value memory_limit 512M
php_value upload_max_filesize 64M
php_value post_max_size 64M
php_value max_execution_time 300
php_value max_input_time 259200
Warning: Setting MAX Limits
While you can adjust the PHP limits to any number up to the values indicated above, setting them any higher will not actually increase the limits. iThemes Hosting caps your PHP limits to protect you from making changes that may slow down your site performance. If you are still experiencing issues with your site, consult a developer.