# Increase WordPress limits on Coolify

> If you’re running WordPress on Coolify (with Traefik as the reverse proxy), you may hit upload or memory limits when importing content or uploading large files. The fix is to append a few php_value directives to your .htaccess file using the built-in Coolify terminal.

Author: Farhan Munim  
Published: 26 April 2026  
Updated: 26 October 2026  
Tags: Coolify, PHP  
Source: https://farhan.app/blog/increase-wordpress-limits-on-coolify/

This guide assumes you’re using the default `wordpress:apache` image, which is what Coolify’s one-click WordPress deploys ship with. If you’re on a PHP-FPM variant (`wordpress:php8.x-fpm` or similar), skip to the [PHP-FPM section](#what-if-im-on-php-fpm) at the bottom.

## Step 1. Open the container terminal

In Coolify, navigate to your WordPress resource, open the **Terminal** tab, select your WordPress container from the dropdown, and click **Connect**.

## Step 2. Append the limits to `.htaccess`

Paste this entire block into the terminal as one piece and hit Enter. Don’t type it line by line:

```bash
cat >> /var/www/html/.htaccess << 'EOF'
php_value upload_max_filesize 128M
php_value post_max_size 128M
php_value memory_limit 256M
php_value max_execution_time 300
php_value max_input_time 300
php_value max_input_vars 3000
EOF
```

The `<< 'EOF'` syntax tells the shell exactly where the input ends, so there’s no risk of accidentally appending the wrong thing. As soon as you hit Enter after the closing `EOF`, the command finishes and you’re back at the prompt.

## Step 3. Verify the file looks right

Run:

```bash
tail -10 /var/www/html/.htaccess
```

The last lines should match the `php_value` block you just added, and there should be **nothing else** after them – no stray commands, no half-typed text. If you see anything that isn’t a `php_value` directive at the bottom, see the [recovery section](#help-my-site-is-now-showing-no-available-server) below.

Apache reads `.htaccess` on every request, so no restart is needed. Confirm the new values are live by visiting **Tools → Site Health → Info → Server** in WordPress admin. You should see the new `upload_max_filesize`, `post_max_size`, etc.

## A note on persistence

These changes live inside the container’s filesystem. If you redeploy or rebuild the resource from scratch, `.htaccess` will be reset and you’ll lose the changes. For a permanent fix, mount `.htaccess` as a persistent volume under your resource’s **Storages** settings in Coolify.

You should also only run the append command once – running it twice won’t break anything (Apache uses the last directive when there are duplicates), but it clutters the file.

## Help, my site is now showing “no available server”

If you accidentally appended something invalid to `.htaccess` (a typo, a stray command, anything that isn’t a valid Apache directive), Apache will return a 500 on every request. Traefik will mark the container unhealthy, and you’ll see “no available server” instead of your site.

To recover, open the container terminal again and check what’s in the file:

```bash
tail -15 /var/www/html/.htaccess
```

If you spot a bad line — for example, a `cat` command that got appended as text – remove it with `sed`. For example, to remove a line that says exactly `cat /var/www/html/.htaccess`:

```bash
sed -i '/^cat \/var\/www\/html\/\.htaccess$/d' /var/www/html/.htaccess
```

For other bad lines, adjust the pattern between the slashes. Then verify with `tail -15` again, and test from inside the container:

```bash
curl -sI http://localhost/ | head -3
```

You want a `200`, `301`, or `302` – not a `500`. As soon as Apache stops 500’ing, Traefik picks the container back up automatically within a few seconds. No proxy restart needed.

## What if I’m on PHP-FPM?

The `php_value` directive only works when PHP runs as an Apache module (`mod_php`). If your WordPress image runs PHP via FPM, those lines are silently ignored. You can check which one you have by running this in the container terminal:

```bash
apachectl -M 2>/dev/null | grep -i php
```

If `php_module` shows up, you’re on `mod_php` and the instructions above work. If nothing comes back, you’re on PHP-FPM – use a `.user.ini` file instead:

```bash
cat > /var/www/html/.user.ini << 'EOF'
upload_max_filesize = 128M
post_max_size = 128M
memory_limit = 256M
max_execution_time = 300
max_input_time = 300
max_input_vars = 3000
EOF
```

PHP caches `.user.ini` for 5 minutes by default, so either wait or restart the container from Coolify to apply immediately.