The error, the link you followed has expired, can prevent you from trying out a new theme, installing a plugin, or uploading a file.
When you are trying to get a document published a series of error messages can appear; Sorry, document preview session has expired. Then WordPress theme upload error. It’s important to know why these errors occur and what to do about them.
In short, the link you followed has expired will appear when you attempt to upload themes, install plugins or attach documents that are too big, or they’re taking too much time. They exceed the WordPress default upload limits.
WordPress takes this measure to keep your website safe and its performance optimal.
There are ways to work around these error messages without harming your site. WordPress will keep it safe. You need to increase the default upload limits.
There are three different effective solutions to prevent the “link you followed has expired” from appearing on your WordPress dashboard.
Your hosting service providers restrict the size of files you may upload and your file exceeds the limit.
A memory exhausted error and memory execution time exceeded error will appear. For themes and plugins, the link you followed has expired error will appear because the upload size is limited by default.
You can upload up to 100mb at a time with managed WordPress hosting providers
A smaller shared hosting plan will not allow you to upload larger themes and plugins within your WordPress admin area. Your scripts will run too long and will get aborted. In this case, only your web hosting provider can increase the upload limit.
Your website limits the execution time
Regardless of the size limit, when the script runs for too long the memory exhausted or maximum execution time exceeded error will appear.
Armed with this knowledge you now want to upload a WordPress theme or plugin without triggering the link expired error and fix the link you followed has expired:
3 Solutions
If the first solution does not work, undo the changes you made to the core files and try the second or third method.
Before you start, It’s important to back up your site, and store copies of your files.
This is the easiest but most restricted action. Restricted because the changes you will make are connected with your present WordPress theme. You will have to redo this procedure when changing the theme, so if you change your themes frequently, the other two solutions will work better.
@ini_set( 'upload_max_size' , '120M' ); @ini_set( 'post_max_size', '120M'); @ini_set( 'max_execution_time', '300' );
You will add or remove details from the core files of WordPress, using the CPanel.
To log in, use the CPanel username and password that you’ll find in the welcome email from your hosting provider.
Open the File Manager app and select the public.html folder.
Right-click on the .htaccess file and select Edit. Go to the bottom of your .htaccess file and paste this code:
php_value upload_max_filesize 128M php_value post_max_size 128M php_value max_execution_time 300 php_value max_input_time 300
The .htaccess file may be hidden by your file management software or sometimes it doesn’t exist yet because a file permissions issue stopped your WordPress site from generating one. You can manually create the .htaccess file including the necessary code.
If you are using a dedicated WordPress hosting plan, it’s preferable to edit the PHP.ini file instead. Access your WordPress site’s root folder then use FTP or the File Manager app in your hosting account’s CPanel dashboard.
The PHP.ini file probably won’t exist if you are using a shared hosting package. You can check this in your public.html folder.
If you can’t find the PHP.ini file
upload_max_filesize = 128M post_max_size = 12M max_execution_time = 300
WordPress is the most popular website builder around, and is safer than smaller competitors. To keep you protected from malicious attacks, WordPress prefers to be over-protective so the error, the link you followed has expired will appear if necessary.
Check the maximum file upload size limit on beforehand by going to Media » Add New page so you know what to expect.
You can expect to have trouble uploading when:
These 3 methods will fix the problem:
It’s quite easy to fix the link you followed has expired error in WordPress. Then you will be able to upload large files, themes, and plugins through the WordPress dashboard.
Remember that if you are on a shared hosting package, you need to contact your web hosting provider to increase the limit for you.
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