WordPress is the most favorite blogging platform for most of us due to its ease right from setting things up to adding content. But life without problems doesn’t exist, right? It is the way we all should lead life. I mean not with problems but solving them from time to time.
Now, I think you must have guessed that in this post I’ll be talking about some problems related to WordPress. Yes! No matter how perfect the platform is, there will always be some sort of problems/errors or going to be created in the future due to some unknown reasons.
And with me blogging for more than 4 years and using the WordPress platform, trust me I’ve seen pretty much all the errors or problems. To name a few, the most common ones are Error Establishing a Database Connection, Internal Server Error, White Screen of Death, etc.
But today I will be discussing something different which is also a common one. It’s called a WordPress HTTP error. We’ll see what HTTP error is all about and how you can fix HTTP error when uploading images to WordPress.
Without further ado, let’s straight away jump to the main part.
What is a WordPress HTTP Error?
The WordPress HTTP error usually pops up when something goes wrong while uploading images or videos to the WordPress media library. It doesn’t say exactly what actually went wrong in the process and so there can’t be a single fix to this issue. And as we don’t know what caused it the only thing we are left with is troubleshooting.
Have you ever encountered the WordPress HTTP Error while uploading images to the media library? I bet you did. Even I also faced the same error, but my error was a little bit different than the others. And literally, I scratched all my hair as I was trying to fix this issue for a couple of months. But couldn’t get it resolved and I stopped fixing it anymore. Do you want to do the same? I guess not.
HTTP error seems to be a simple issue but it is frustrating because you don’t get to know what’s the reason behind this and what should be the approach to resolve this.
Well actually my issue was not the hard one but it was kinda troublesome. Though it doesn’t throw an HTTP error to me while uploading images to the media library of WordPress but it does hit me with the HTTP error when I upload the images through some gallery plugin. And this was killing me very badly.
Several Ways to Fix WordPress HTTP Error
You don’t have to kill yourself as today I will show you some of the easiest fixes to the WordPress HTTP error which will save your ass. Some of these errors might be the cause of the configurations you made in security and firewall plugins like Sucuri Security, BulletProof Security, Wordfence Security, Better WP Security, and many more.
There may be several ways to fix WordPress HTTP error but we cannot stress on any particular solution as it is quite possible that a particular solution has worked for someone but it may not work for you. So in order to make your WordPress running absolutely fine, you need to look into the following things:-
Solution 1: Switch to Incognito Mode
It is possible that WordPress HTTP error is not actually related to the website but in fact, something unexpected could have happened with your browser.
In such cases, the usual step of troubleshooting should be to switch to a different browser or try incognito mode. This will confirm whether the issue is related to your website or your browser.
In case the problem persists, move on to the next steps.
Solution 2: Renaming Image File
There’s always an easy solution to every problem. And the easiest part is to rename the filename and then try uploading again. Sometimes, WordPress can act up and wouldn’t allow uploading images if the name contains special characters. You should avoid using special characters in the filename. I prefer Simple and Sweet. Mind it that renaming an already uploaded image file won’t work and you have to rename the file locally and then upload it.
The best way is to add a dash between your filename like for example filename-1.png, filename-2.png. Dashes are OK and you shouldn’t face any problems with them. But make sure you add those dashes between your filenames as google will see them as one word and it will hurt your SEO rankings.
Read more: Why You Should Use CDN for Images
Solution 3: Editing .htaccess
If you have installed some security plugins like iThemes Security, Better WordPress Security what happens is that when you install and configure such security plugins the rules are added in the .htaccess files which reside in your website directory. And because of such rules, it might be the case that it is restricting any media uploads.
So what you need to do is to navigate to your site directory via FTP or via logging into your site’s cPanel. Once you have logged in navigate to the wp-content folder and you will see the .htaccess file. Open that file and remove all the rules from the file (leave it blank) and save it. Now try uploading the media file again and see whether it works or not for you.
Solution 4: Temporarily Disabling Plugins
If you’re having issues uploading images and getting the WordPress HTTP error – while crunching.
Log into your site’s directory via FTP or cPanel and create an empty plugins folder.
- Navigate to the wp-content folder (directory).
- Rename the folder “plugins” to something else like “plugins.backup”.
- Create a new folder called “plugins”.
- Login to your WordPress dashboard.
- Now if you go to your Plugins section you will notice that all your plugins are showing as broken. Worry not as this is normal.
- Reloading the page, all your plugins will be gone.
- Now via FTP delete the empty “plugins” folder you previously created.
- Now rename the plugins.backup folder back to “plugins”.
- Reload your plugins page and all your plugins will appear normally as they should.
- Now, try uploading an image and it will be uploaded successfully with no more HTTP error.
- Now, re-activate all your plugins. All your settings for each plug-in should still be there.
Solution 5: Disable mod_security
Mod_security is an open-source web application firewall (WAF) for the Linux/Unix servers and comes installed with your cPanel. It protects from a wide range of cyberattacks against web applications.
Mod_security might be the reason that is causing an HTTP error to occur. You can try disabling it by adding a line on top of your .htaccess file.
<IfModule mod_security.c> SecFilterEngine Off SecFilterScanPOST Off </IfModule>
Conclusion
No matter what platform you choose, there’s always going to be an issue or some sort of errors. But the real challenge is how you take up such issues and resolve them.
Let us know what solution has worked for you in the comment section down below. Also, if you have figured out some other method to fix HTTP error when uploading images to WordPress that we have not listed above, kindly let us know and we will update the article with your method mentioned in it.
Hope you were able to resolve the WordPress HTTP error with the solution provided above.
