Stuck with the WordPress upload error unexpected response from the server?

Users obtain this error while trying to upload images, text files, videos, etc. via the WordPress dashboard.

The error can be due to many reasons like improper PHP settings, wrong file permissions, plugin or theme conflict, etc.

At Bobcares, we often fix this error for WordPress users as part of our Server Management Services.

Today, let’s get into the details on how our Support Engineers fix this WordPress error.

Why does WordPress show an unexpected response from the server?

WordPress is an amazing content management system and the backbone for many websites. User-friendly features made it even more popular.

But in some situations, WordPress won’t behave as expected. One such situation WordPress users may have come across is while uploading any file to it.

And users get stuck with an unexpected error,

The error can be due to many reasons. Sometimes it might be due to the PHP file size limits in the server, wrong file permissions, plugin or theme conflict, etc.

How we fix this WordPress upload error?

Even though the error message is vague, our Experts could easily troubleshoot and fix WordPress errors. Let’s see how  our wordpress support team tweaks a few settings and fix this error.

Initial troubleshooting

Firstly we check if the error is just appearing at the user end alone. Sometimes, the larger file sizes or simple mistakes the users make can be the problem. That is the usage of special characters or white spaces in the image name.

But if it is a server-side error, we tweak a few settings to fix it.

Wrong folder permissions

Sometimes wrong file permission can throw errors while uploading files. So we check the existing permissions of WordPress folders in the server.

Especially the permissions of wp-content and uploads, as WordPress tries to upload a file from this path.

For this, we log in to the customer’s server and access the WordPress files. Later to change the permissions of these folders we use the commands,

chmod 755 -R wp-content
chmod 755 -R wp-content/uploads

Mostly this fixes the error.

Tweaking PHP upload limit

The PHP settings in a server will have allowable size limits for uploading a file. Usually, it will be based on the server plans provided by the hosting companies. But if a user tries to upload a file with a larger size, it ends up in error.

In such situations, users can compress their files using compressing tools and upload it.

If the limit is too low for a WordPress website we tweak the following PHP parameters in the php.ini file or user.ini file by considering the upload limit in the server.

memory_limit: 256M
upload_max_filesize: 64M
post_max_size: 76M

Hence, the increase in memory limit allows users to upload larger files.

Plugin or Theme conflict

Faulty plugins can cause trouble while working with WordPress. In this case, the best way is to deactivate plugins temporarily and upload the file. If the image got uploaded, it indicates that there was a faulty plugin.

So we activate the plugin one by one and identify the faulty one and disable it. Later we provide some alternative for the disabled plugin. Sometimes the latest version of the same plugin can be used.

In addition, the WordPress themes can also stop a user from uploading files. To fix this we initially take the backup of the site and then change the theme to default one. Later, we use a theme convenient for the user.

[Still having the problem with uploading files in WordPress?- We’re available 24/7.]

Conclusion

In short, the WordPress upload error unexpected response from the server can be easily fixed by correcting file permissions, tweaking PHP upload limits, disabling faulty plugin or theme, etc. Today, we saw how our Support Engineers fixed this upload error.