Increase GoDaddy max_execution_time

January 18, 2015

I recently moved a couple of my sites from Dreamhost to GoDaddy’s managed WordPress hosting.

While one of the websites migrated perfectly fine, the other website had issues with the WordPress importer failing. :/

My best guess of what was happening is that the GoDaddy max_execution_time was set quite low, which was causing the importer to fail. I confirmed this by downloading the phpinfo plugin which showed the following:

GoDaddy max_execution_time before

Let’s Increase the GoDaddy max_execution_time

It took a bit for me to figure out how to increase the max_execution on GoDaddy’s managed WordPress hosting, but after quite a bit of search I found an article on GoDaddy’s support portal that describes where to put the PHP initialization files for the varying GoDaddy hosting products.

Easily enough, the PHP initialization file for GoDaddy’s managed WordPress hosting is located at html, which is the initial directory upon logging in to SFTP.

So, to increase GoDaddy max_execution_time, all I had to do was:

Open an SFTP connection
In the same directory as wp-config.php, create a .user.ini file. Note the leading .
Lastly, in this .user.ini file, I added the following:

[code lang=text]
max_execution_time = 180
[/code]

The above will increase the GoDaddy max_execution_time to 3 minutes, which you can verify yourself by using the phpinfo plugin mentioned above.

GoDaddy ini After

Unfortunately for me, increasing the GoDaddy max_execution_time didn’t fix my issue of the WordPress importer failing. I ended up moving my site to WP Engine which worked like a charm.

Comments

30 responses to “Increase GoDaddy max_execution_time”

Luke

February 12, 2015

You are a LIFE SAVER!! I went through so many other hoops trying to change this setting on my godaddy wordpress site…editing php.ini and php5.ini and htaccess files and nothing worked….until i found this!! Thank you for sharing!!!

Reply
1. ebinnion
  
  February 12, 2015
  
  I’m glad that it worked out for you! Thanks for leaving a comment and letting me know. 🙂
  
  Reply
arya721

May 10, 2015

Thx bro

Reply
Sarah

June 27, 2015

I tried doing this, but upon verification, max_execution_time is still at 180. (I need it at 600). I did, changed it to 600 though. But still the same.

Named the file .user.ini

Is there anything that I am doing wrong?

Reply
1. Eric Binnion
  
  July 11, 2015
  
  Hi Sarah,
  
  My apologies for the slow reply. I had several issues with GoDaddy managed and eventually moved my sites elsewhere.
  
  One thing I’ll mention though is that the name of the ini file changes depending on what GoDaddy product you are using. So, for the GoDaddy managed WordPress product, the file is named .user.ini. But, other products expect different filenames, which is described in this article.
  
  Reply
  1. Daniel Guti�rrez
    
    September 22, 2016
    
    Thx Eric! In my case was php5.ini!
    
    Reply
  2. Mike Wiesman
    
    September 8, 2018
    
    Just did this today and .user.ini works and .user.php.ini does not work. Thanks for the post!
    
    Reply
Gary David

July 7, 2015

Thanks a ton!

I was chatting with godaddy support and they told me to just type in the number and not the whole “max_execution_time = xxx”.

Reply
1. Eric Binnion
  
  July 11, 2015
  
  My apologies for the slow reply. Thanks for leaving a comment after talking with support! Hopefully others find it helpful. ?
  
  Reply
Yamen Shahin

December 23, 2015

You are awesome! I never know this about GoDaddy.I think we can also change some other parameter as well here like max_input_vars = 2000 and so on

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Michael

February 14, 2016

Great help. I was also able to change upload_max_filesize in the .user.ini file. Just remember to put an “M” at the end or you’ll get an error (i.e. upload_max_filesize = 40M).

Reply
Kris Bey

April 5, 2016

Fantastic! Thank you, i don’t usually use GoDaddy but occasionally a client is self hosted and you have to fix theses hosting issues. This was right on the money!

Reply
daniyalahmedk

April 23, 2016

Thank you so much!!! i have spent hours for making this fix. tried httacess nothing works. But your solution .user.ini works for me!!

Reply
Troy Walters

May 24, 2016

Thanks! A great help for me.

Reply
baidyanath

July 27, 2016

I uploaded the file and the new max_execution_time is updated as local value, may be it is due to the domain is added as addon domain. The master max_execution_time is 30.

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Alexander

October 18, 2016

Thank you for this post. .user.ini file is the ticked for godaddy’s horrendous server default limitations and no where on their support forums do they show this tutorial.

max_execution_time = 300
max_input_vars = 2000

Cheers!

Reply
THANKS

January 24, 2017

after a couple hours trying to resolve this problem while nothing else worked, i came across this post and it worked. thanks!

Reply
Bob

March 28, 2017

I Really Needed To Say Thank You!…
I Need To Bulk Add Tags To My WordPress Posts So That In-Turn I Could Use Tags In A MegaMenu.
Bulk Editing And Adding Tags Timed Me Out… You Solved This Problem In 3 Mins!
Thank You

Reply
Ashique

April 4, 2017

Yes it is working, but you do not need to open SFTP connection,
You can create file .user.ini with normally it will work.

Reply
1. Eric Binnion
  
  April 4, 2017
  
  I recommended opening an SFTP connection because I used Transmit (an FTP program) to create and edit the .user.ini file.
  
  If GoDaddy has a file viewer or SSH access, I suppose you could do it that way though.
  
  Reply
Jake

April 26, 2017

RE: Max Execution Time with WP Engine,

I was just told by them: “We have a server-side script that kills processes at 60 seconds so unlimited will not technically be possible.
We are not be able to disable or alter this kill script, as this is programmed at the root of our platform and is in place to protect the entirety of our shared platform and services.”

So altering the ‘max_execution_time’ won’t matter or resolve the issue I am having due to their server-side 60 second kill script

Reply
Ajool M

May 18, 2017

why godaddy has to do this? always time out. i don’t like.
This article helped but

Reply
Shakeera

July 13, 2017

Thank you brother.. It is working, but we do not need to open SFTP connection,
You can create file .user.ini with normally it is working.

Reply
inlovearoundtheworld2017

August 5, 2017

I am not a web developer or programmer but managed to get it done, thanks to you! You are a life saver! Thanks so much!

Reply
David Walker

November 27, 2017

Hi Eric
You can now also change those settings in the godaddy account
Go to
PHP Version in your settings and then
“Switch To PHP Options”
Not that i would recommend Godaddy either, but just in case someone needs it

Reply
1. Kunal Sarin
  
  June 1, 2018
  
  David, you made it simpler than ever.
  
  For those who are looking for a little more elaborated setps,
  
  Go into cPannel, scroll down until you see “Software” section.
  Click “Select PHP version”
  On this page, you should see a button on the right as “Switch to PHP Options”
  Viola! you can changes these settings there.
  
  Reply
Loriana

June 10, 2018

Thank you – thank you – thank you!!!

Reply
Jim

October 16, 2018

Thank you so very much! This was a life saver!

Reply
MyAss

June 28, 2020

Saved my ass.

Reply
Thea

April 29, 2022

Thank you for your instructions, but, phpinfo plugin isn’t compatible with my current version of wordpress.

Suggestions welcomed..
Did anyone use a different plugin that was successful.

Thanks

Reply