GLPI maximum upload filesize

Users hit "the file is too big" when attaching screenshots, invoices, or inventory exports to tickets. Like any PHP application, GLPI inherits PHP's default upload limit — typically 2 MB. There are three places that can block a larger upload: PHP itself, the web server in front of PHP, and GLPI's own per-entity limit. All three need to agree.

1. PHP limits

The relevant directives live in php.ini:

• upload_max_filesize — maximum size of a single uploaded file
• post_max_size — maximum size of the whole POST request (must be ≥ upload_max_filesize)
• memory_limit — peak memory for the PHP process (should be ≥ post_max_size)
• max_execution_time — seconds before the script is killed; bump it for large uploads on slow links
• max_input_time — seconds PHP will wait for request data to arrive

Find the right php.ini — there are usually several, and editing the wrong one does nothing:

php --ini
# or from GLPI itself: Setup → General → System → check "Loaded Configuration File"

On modern systems the CLI and web ini files are separate. For the web, you want something like:

• Debian/Ubuntu (Apache + mod_php): /etc/php/8.2/apache2/php.ini
• Debian/Ubuntu (nginx + PHP-FPM): /etc/php/8.2/fpm/php.ini
• RHEL/CentOS: /etc/php.ini

Example values for a 100 MB upload:

upload_max_filesize = 100M
post_max_size = 110M
memory_limit = 256M
max_execution_time = 300
max_input_time = 300

2. Reload PHP

Changes to php.ini don't take effect until the PHP process is reloaded. Which service depends on your stack:

# Apache with mod_php
sudo systemctl reload apache2          # Debian/Ubuntu
sudo systemctl reload httpd            # RHEL/CentOS

# nginx with PHP-FPM
sudo systemctl reload php8.2-fpm       # Debian/Ubuntu
sudo systemctl reload php-fpm          # RHEL/CentOS

The old /etc/init.d/httpd restart command still works on legacy systems but systemd is the standard since ~2015.

3. Web server limits

If PHP is behind nginx, nginx enforces its own upload cap (default 1 MB). Raise it in the server block or globally:

client_max_body_size 110M;

Then reload nginx: sudo systemctl reload nginx. Apache doesn't have an equivalent hard cap for mod_php, but if you use LimitRequestBody in your config, raise that too.

If you sit behind Cloudflare or another CDN, check its upload limit as well — Cloudflare Free caps at 100 MB per request, Pro at 200 MB, Business at 500 MB. A bigger PHP limit can't get past a smaller CDN limit.

4. GLPI per-entity limit

GLPI has its own "Maximum size for documents" setting, configured per entity:

1. Administration → Entities → pick the entity → Assistance tab
2. Set Maximum size of uploaded documents (in MB)

This is separate from the PHP and web server limits — GLPI will reject files above this value even if PHP would have accepted them. Set it to whatever your PHP configuration actually allows, minus a small buffer for request overhead.

5. Verify

Upload a file close to your new limit through the GLPI UI. If it still fails, check the response size and which layer complained:

• "413 Request Entity Too Large" — nginx or Apache (web server limit)
• "POST Content-Length exceeds the limit" — PHP post_max_size
• "The file exceeds the maximum size" — PHP upload_max_filesize
• "The file size is too high" inside GLPI — the per-entity GLPI limit

The error message tells you which of the four layers to fix next.