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Request Entity Too Large

FAQ: How do I increase the post size limit?

To save files from Loco Translate your server must be able to accept POST data at least the same size as the PO file you're saving.

Most PO files are small, but some plugins can have a lot of translatable text. For example, translations of the popular WooCommerce plugin can be between 1MB and 2MB. If you post 2MB of data to a server with a 1MB limit, it will respond with error status 413 "Request Entity Too Large".

What's enforcing the limit?

Good question. There are numerous places this limit might be set, but you will have to investigate each one in turn. We can't tell you which part of your system is limiting request sizes. All we can tell you is that Loco Translate does not enforce any such limit.

Try our suggestions below, or ask people with similar issues if you run out of ideas.

PHP limits

PHP has a "post_max_size" setting. To see what yours is, enable WordPress debug mode and go to Loco Translate > Settings > Debug. This page has a section titled "Size limits" where you can see your current value. If it's less than the size of your PO file then you'll need to raise it.

The PHP setting itself can be set from numerous places too:

  • Your php.ini file
  • Your web server configuration (Apache)
  • Code in your site using ini_set

Don't confuse "post_max_size" with "upload_max_filesize" which applies to file uploads. (Loco Translate doesn't actually upload any files). Most tutorials you find on the Web will be related to file upload limits in WordPress. They are worth following anyway, because increasing the upload limit also requires increasing the post size limit.

If you're not familiar with configuring PHP then please ask your hosting provider "How do I increase post_max_size in PHP?"

Web server limits

Your web server sees posted data before PHP does. That means it has the first say when the size is to large. It's not possible to see this limit from within WordPress, so you'll have to examine the server's configuration file for your site.

If you're not familiar with configuring web servers then please ask your hosting provider for help.

Other software

If your web server and PHP are both configured correctly then some other component must be blocking the post requests.

We've received reports that some security software can do this, so check with your hosting provider whether there are any other components installed in your site that could block requests over a certain size.

Failing that, try disabling all other plugins. This should eliminate any running code that isn't WordPress or Loco Translate.

Dead end

If you're still stuck after exhausting all our suggestions and quizzing your hosting provider then you won't be able to use Loco Translate. It's a system requirement you can post the contents of a PO file to your server.

If you want to report it us a bug then you are welcome to post on the forum, but we can only investigate reproducible errors.

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