WordPress Fatal error: Allowed Memory Size Exhausted?

Memory allocation and exhaustion problems within WordPress installations.

By default, our servers allow up to 32MB of data to be transferred via PHP. Not having enough memory can result in errors that look similar to this one:

Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 33554432 bytes exhausted (tried to allocate 2515174 bytes) in /path/to/wordpress/file.php on line 1331

Before we get started, it is important to understand which of the three PHP settings you are using for your hosting account.

If using PHP5 (Single php.ini) or PHP5 (FastCGI)Simply locate the php.ini file inside the public_html/ directory; for the standard PHP5 setting, make a copy of the php.ini file first and place it in the wp-includes/ directory. If the php.ini file cannot be located, a new php.ini. The default file can be created via the Plesk or cPanel PHP Config icon. Be sure to rename the file to php.iniIt will not function while named php.ini.default.

Within the php.ini file, modify the memory_limit value. The php.ini The file can be edited with any text editor, including the Edit one Code Edit option within your Bluehost File Manager. With the file open, search (Ctrl+F) for memory_limit or scroll down to approximately line 232. Here you should see the following line:

memory_limit = 32M; Maximum amount of memory a script may consume (32MB)

Simply update this number to accommodate a higher amount of memory; we suggest setting the value to 64M, as this fulfills most common requirements. Be sure to save any changes. Next, open the file wp-settings.php (located within the directory where WordPress is installed). Near the top of this file, look for:

define(‘WP_MEMORY_LIMIT’, ’32M’);

Update this value to the new memory limit as well. Save changes to the file. Once the file is saved, the effect should be immediate.

Note: To check and see that the memory_limit has been updated properly, create a new text file called info.php within the same directory you edited your new php.ini file. Create this new file and add the following code:

<?php phpinfo() ;?>

Then view this page in a browser (be sure to include the directory in the URL if this is where you placed the info.php file). The PHP settings, including the memory_limit, should have changed. This will also show the path to the php.ini file, which is being used.