ownCloud Server Administration Manual

Uploading big files > 512MB

The default maximum file size for uploads is 512MB. You can increase this limit up to what your filesystem and operating system allows. There are certain hard limits that cannot be exceeded:

  • < 2GB on 32Bit OS-architecture
  • < 2GB on Windows (32Bit and 64Bit)
  • < 2GB with Server Version 4.5 or older
  • < 2GB with IE6 - IE8
  • < 4GB with IE9 - IE10

64-bit filesystems have much higher limits; consult the documentation for your filesystem.

Note

The ownCloud sync client is not affected by these upload limits as it is uploading files in smaller chunks.

System Configuration

  • Make sure that the latest version of PHP (at least 5.4.9) is installed
  • Disable user quotas, which makes them unlimited
  • Your temp file or partition has to be big enough to hold multiple parallel uploads from multiple users; e.g. if the max upload size is 10GB and the average number of users uploading at the same time is 100: temp space has to hold at least 10x100 GB

Configuring Your Webserver

ownCloud comes with its own owncloud/.htaccess file.
If PHP-FPM is used, it can’t read .htaccess PHP settings unless the htscanner
PECL extension is installed. If PHP-FPM is used without this PECL extension installed,
settings and permissions must be set in the owncloud/.user.ini file.

Set the following two parameters inside the corresponding php.ini file (see the Loaded Configuration File section of PHP Version and Information to find your relevant php.ini files)

php_value upload_max_filesize = 16G
php_value post_max_size = 16G

Adjust these values for your needs. If you see PHP timeouts in your logfiles, increase the timeout values, which are in seconds:

php_value max_input_time 3600
php_value max_execution_time 3600

The mod_reqtimeout Apache module could also stop large uploads from completing. If you’re using this module and getting failed uploads of large files either disable it in your Apache config or raise the configured RequestReadTimeout timeouts.

There are also several other configuration options in your webserver config which could prevent the upload of larger files. Please see the manual of your webserver for how to configure those values correctly:

Apache with mod_fcgid

Configuring PHP

If you don’t want to use the ownCloud .htaccess or .user.ini file, you may configure PHP instead. Make sure to comment out any lines .htaccess pertaining to upload size, if you entered any.

If you are running ownCloud on a 32-bit system, any open_basedir directive in your php.ini file needs to be commented out.

Set the following two parameters inside php.ini, using your own desired file size values:

upload_max_filesize = 16G
post_max_size = 16G

Tell PHP which temp file you want it to use:

upload_tmp_dir = /var/big_temp_file/

Output Buffering must be turned off in .htaccess or .user.ini or php.ini, or PHP will return memory-related errors:

  • output_buffering = 0

Configuring ownCloud

If you have configured the session_lifetime setting in your config.php (See Config.php Parameters) file then make sure it is not too low. This setting needs to be configured to at least the time (in seconds) that the longest upload will take. If unsure remove this completely from your configuration to reset it to the default shown in the config.sample.php.