Title: Image File Processing Limits Last modified: December 4, 2019 --- # Image File Processing Limits * Resolved [Rick Hellewell](https://wordpress.org/support/users/rhellewellgmailcom/) * (@rhellewellgmailcom) * [6 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/image-file-processing-limits/) * There seems to be some issues with emails that have multiple picture files attached. If there are too many files, the email processing times out. I am pretty sure that this is an issue with the settings on the server. If there is a timeout because the email process is not finished, the result is the ‘tmpfile’ post, and no processing of the mail/images. * I am aware that you can compress images before emailing, but some users aren’t really geeky enough to know how to do it (and to remember to do it). * As a test, I tried to upload 11 images, with a total file size of about 8MB. The last image successfully processed was the 6th image, and about 4MB. I had debug turned on, so I could see what got processed. It would seem that the system could do better than that. * Note that when the processing fails, there is no error message sent to the admin when you have the ‘notify on error’ enabled. That would be nice, if possible. * So I am looking for some general recommendations on server PHP settings that would be best to allow for processing multiple image files without timing out. I can make those changes via the php.ini file, but is there some ‘good’ values to use? * Thanks. Viewing 5 replies - 1 through 5 (of 5 total) * Plugin Author [Wayne Allen](https://wordpress.org/support/users/wayneallen-1/) * (@wayneallen-1) * [6 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/image-file-processing-limits/#post-12202964) * You’re on the right track. PHP has a setting called `max_execution_time` See [https://www.php.net/manual/en/info.configuration.php#ini.max-execution-time](https://www.php.net/manual/en/info.configuration.php#ini.max-execution-time) that will terminiate a script once that time has been reached. Since it is terminated Postie doesn’t get a chance to tell you about it. You or your hosting company will need to change this value in your php.ini file. * Thread Starter [Rick Hellewell](https://wordpress.org/support/users/rhellewellgmailcom/) * (@rhellewellgmailcom) * [6 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/image-file-processing-limits/#post-12205785) * I thought that max_execution_time would be one of the ones to change. Any recommendations?( Although probably based on number/size of images in the ‘average’ email?) * Had a sudden thought on helping to get alerts on this issue. What if.. * – at the beginning of the Postie process, you get the max_execution_time value – start a timer – at various points thoughout the processing process (during a loop that grabs and processes each picture), you determine elapsed time (and therefore the remaining time for the processing). If the remaining time is getting too short, fire off a message to the admin alerting them to the possibility of not finishing the process due to running out of max_execution_time; give them an estimated ‘percentage of completion’, and then alerting to a possible ‘tmp_title’ entry. * That alert to the admin would be helpful for them tweaking their max_execution_time value for their expected Postie processing ‘load’. It would also alert admin of mail that didn’t (or likely won’t) get processed. * But, still interested in other INI file settings that would be helpful when diagnosing tmp_title issues. * Plugin Author [Wayne Allen](https://wordpress.org/support/users/wayneallen-1/) * (@wayneallen-1) * [6 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/image-file-processing-limits/#post-12210798) * There are a lot of variables to consider and the complexity is pretty high for an issue that affects almost nobody. Your best bet is to increase max_execution_time to some reasonable number and possibly change `Maximum number of emails to process` to a smaller number. * Thread Starter [Rick Hellewell](https://wordpress.org/support/users/rhellewellgmailcom/) * (@rhellewellgmailcom) * [6 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/image-file-processing-limits/#post-12244996) * Two separate multisite sites, both have the exact same Postie settings. In the php.ini Max_execution_time set to 300 (5 minutes). Only one email waiting to be processed. * Same post, with 8 pictures about 600mb each. One site fails the Postie process, one works just fine. I manually run the ‘check mail’ thing. On the failing system, the process runs about 2 minutes, then gives me a 405 error. Six of the 8 pictures make it into the media library. After the 405 error, there are no messages in the mail queue on the server. * Why the 405 error? And why does execution fail on one multisite, but not the other? (Since it is a multisite, all php.ini settings are the same.) * Plugin Author [Wayne Allen](https://wordpress.org/support/users/wayneallen-1/) * (@wayneallen-1) * [6 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/image-file-processing-limits/#post-12247181) * 405 is a http error. You’d need to look at your web server logs to see if there is more information. Viewing 5 replies - 1 through 5 (of 5 total) The topic ‘Image File Processing Limits’ is closed to new replies. * ![](https://ps.w.org/postie/assets/icon-256x256.png?rev=970083) * [Postie](https://wordpress.org/plugins/postie/) * [Frequently Asked Questions](https://wordpress.org/plugins/postie/#faq) * [Support Threads](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/postie/) * [Active Topics](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/postie/active/) * [Unresolved Topics](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/postie/unresolved/) * [Reviews](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/postie/reviews/) ## Tags * [php.ini](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/php-ini/) * [server timeout](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/server-timeout/) * 5 replies * 2 participants * Last reply from: [Wayne Allen](https://wordpress.org/support/users/wayneallen-1/) * Last activity: [6 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/image-file-processing-limits/#post-12247181) * Status: resolved