Bluehost Web Hosting Help

WordPress Fatal error: Allowed memory size exhausted

Memory allocation and exhaustion problems within WordPress installations.
By default, our servers allow up to 32MB of data to be transferred via PHP. Not having enough memory can result in errors that look similar to this one:

            Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 33554432 bytes exhausted (tried to allocate 2515174 bytes) in /path/to/wordpress/file.php on line 1331 
            

Before we get started, it is important to understand which of the three PHP settings you are using for your hosting account. Please see this article to learn how to check your PHP settings.

If using "PHP5 (Single php.ini)" or "PHP5 (FastCGI)", simply locate the "php.ini" file inside "public_html/" directory; for the standard "PHP5" setting, make a copy of the php.ini file first and place it in the "wp-includes/" directory. If the php.ini file cannot be located, a new php.ini.default file can be created via the cPanel PHP Config icon. Be sure to rename the file to php.ini, it will not function while named php.ini.default.

Within the php.ini file, modify the "memory_limit" value. The php.ini file can be edited with any text editor, including the "Edit" or "Code Edit" option within your Bluehost File Manager. With the file open, search (ctrl+f) for memory_limit or scroll down to approximately line 232. Here you should see the following line:

            memory_limit = 32M      ; Maximum amount of memory a script may consume (32MB)

Simply update this number to accommodate for a higher amount of memory; we suggest setting the value as "64M," as this fulfills most common requirements. Be sure to save any changes. Next, open the file wp-settings.php (located within the directory where WordPress is installed). Near the top of this file look for:

            define('WP_MEMORY_LIMIT', '32M');
            
Update this value to the new memory limit as well. Save changes to the file. Once the file is saved, the effect should be immediate.

Note: To check and see that the memory_limit has been updated properly, create a new text file called info.php within the same directory you edited your new php.ini file. Create this new file and add the following code:

            <?php phpinfo() ;?>
            

Then view this page in a browser (be sure to include the directory in the URL if this is where you placed the info.php file). The PHP settings including the memory_limit should have changed. This will also show the path to the php.ini file which is being used.

Knowledgebase Article 298,922 views bookmark tags: exceeded fatal memory php wordpress


Was this resource helpful?

Did this resolve your issue?


Please add any other comments or suggestions about this content:





Recommended Help Content

Fatal error: Unable to read X bytes in /<home_directory>/public_html/myfile.php on line Y

I get this with some of my php files: Fatal error: Unable to read X bytes in //public_html/myfile.php on line Y

How To Increase The PHP Memory Limit

How to install the php.ini file and then increase the PHP Memory limit.

How To Change Upload File Size Limit In PHP - Increase Upload Limits

How do I increase my file size limit in my PHP application?

Related Help Content

WordPress Error: Unable to create directory

WordPress Error: Unable to create directory /wp-content/uploads/2009/mydir/summer/ Is its parent directory writable by the server?

Upgrade CPU and Memory on CloudSites

This article explains how to add CPU and memory upgrades to a CloudSites account.

How To Migrate An Existing Wordpress.com Site

If you have a WordPress blog hosted on WordPress.com, you can easily export it and import it to WordPress that is installed on your hosting account with bluehost. Login to the WordPress Data

Manually editing your error pages

How to customize your html or php error pages.

Email not sending from Client or Webmail

Trying to send out emails from multiple email accounts fail from both webmail and third party email clients. Possible Reasons: The maximum emails per hour has been exceeded. This can be caused by forw

How To Add Handlers To Change PHP Version - PHP Version Setup

This article will explain how to add a PHP handler to your .htaccess files. This is useful if you want to customize the version of PHP that runs your PHP files.

Change Your PHP Version - Dedicated and VPS Hosting

Changing PHP versions, load custom Apache mods, and other Apache/PHP customizations

Database Size and Table Limits.

Database Size and Table Limits.