Adding large (video) files to WordPress via (S)FTP

YmpkerYmpker OGContent Writer
edited February 20 in WordPress

So, recently a client wanted me to embed a whopping 700MB video on their WordPress site (ofc hosted on the webserver) and the webhosting won't support uploads that size to WordPress via Uploadsizelimit, I had to upload the video via (S)FTP. After that I remembered that contrary to good old times, manually uploaded media isn't automatically listed/added to the WordPress "Media". Luckily I still remembered the "Add From Server" plugin which does allow you to add manually uploaded files to the WordPress "Media". That said, while Add From Server worked perfectly fine, the plugin hasn't been updated for quite a while. Everything worked fine, but I wanted to explore more recent/up to date options for future cases, so I stumbled upon the "Bulk Media Register" plugin (https://wordpress.org/plugins/bulk-media-register/) that was mentioned on a recent WP Beginner article (https://www.wpbeginner.com/plugins/how-to-bulk-upload-wordpress-media-files-using-ftp/).

What is your usual workflow in such situations? Anyway, perhaps you were running in a similar issue and this new plugin helps you get the job done :) Just wanted to share the new information here, and discuss this topic in general.

Edit: I love the AddFromServer description on GitHub though: https://github.com/dd32/add-from-server

"Add From Server - An outdated 11 year old plugin that over 100k people still insist on using"

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Comments

  • bikegremlinbikegremlin ModeratorOGContent Writer
    edited February 20

    @Ympker said:
    So, recently a client wanted me to embed a whopping 700MB video on their WordPress site (ofc hosted on the webserver) and the webhosting won't support uploads that size to WordPress via Uploadsizelimit, I had to upload the video via (S)FTP. After that I remembered that contrary to good old times, manually uploaded media isn't automatically listed/added to the WordPress "Media". Luckily I still remembered the "Add From Server" plugin which does allow you to add manually uploaded files to the WordPress "Media". That said, while Add From Server worked perfectly fine, the plugin hasn't been updated for quite a while. Everything worked fine, but I wanted to explore more recent/up to date options for future cases, so I stumbled upon the "Bulk Media Register" plugin (https://wordpress.org/plugins/bulk-media-register/) that was mentioned on a recent WP Beginner article (https://www.wpbeginner.com/plugins/how-to-bulk-upload-wordpress-media-files-using-ftp/).

    What is your usual workflow in such situations? Anyway, perhaps you were running in a similar issue and this new plugin helps you get the job done :) Just wanted to share the new information here, and discuss this topic in general.

    Edit: I love the AddFromServer description on GitHub though: https://github.com/dd32/add-from-server

    "Add From Server - An outdated 11 year old plugin that over 100k people still insist on using"

    PHP max upload file size settings can be tweaked.

    Though, I've never had a client insist on uploading a huge video to WordPress instead of using Youtube.

    Relja

    Edit:
    The plugin is not outdated. It was probably well-written and just works.
    Updates for updates' sake have become the norm - and that's nonsense IMO.

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  • edrebeedrebe OG

    On a VPS, without plugins. Change the values in PHP of post_max_size and upload_max_filesize.

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  • YmpkerYmpker OGContent Writer
    edited February 20

    @bikegremlin said:

    @Ympker said:
    So, recently a client wanted me to embed a whopping 700MB video on their WordPress site (ofc hosted on the webserver) and the webhosting won't support uploads that size to WordPress via Uploadsizelimit, I had to upload the video via (S)FTP. After that I remembered that contrary to good old times, manually uploaded media isn't automatically listed/added to the WordPress "Media". Luckily I still remembered the "Add From Server" plugin which does allow you to add manually uploaded files to the WordPress "Media". That said, while Add From Server worked perfectly fine, the plugin hasn't been updated for quite a while. Everything worked fine, but I wanted to explore more recent/up to date options for future cases, so I stumbled upon the "Bulk Media Register" plugin (https://wordpress.org/plugins/bulk-media-register/) that was mentioned on a recent WP Beginner article (https://www.wpbeginner.com/plugins/how-to-bulk-upload-wordpress-media-files-using-ftp/).

    What is your usual workflow in such situations? Anyway, perhaps you were running in a similar issue and this new plugin helps you get the job done :) Just wanted to share the new information here, and discuss this topic in general.

    Edit: I love the AddFromServer description on GitHub though: https://github.com/dd32/add-from-server

    "Add From Server - An outdated 11 year old plugin that over 100k people still insist on using"

    PHP max upload file size settings can be tweaked.

    Though, I've never had a client insist on uploading a huge video to WordPress instead of using Youtube.

    Relja

    Edit:
    The plugin is not outdated. It was probably well-written and just works.
    Updates for updates' sake have become the norm - and that's nonsense IMO.

    The client's an academic (quite old at that) who doesn't want to create a YT account or host the video elsewhere, and I also don't want to use my own yt acc to host client videos :tongue:

    While I agree, that updates for updates sake are really not needed, what would be nice is if it would instead just indicate, that the current plugin version still works with the current wp version instead of "This plugin hasn’t been tested with the latest 3 major releases of WordPress. It may no longer be maintained or supported and may have compatibility issues when used with more recent versions of WordPress." . So instead of forcing updates for updates sake, it would be nice to get updates on whether the plugin still works every major wp version. Like I said though, I still had the plugin installed (deactivated) on the client's website due to the other video I uploaded a while ago and it worked flawlessly :)

    PHP max upload file size settings can, however, only be tweaked as much as the web hosting allows :/

    @edrebe said:
    On a VPS, without plugins. Change the values in PHP of post_max_size and upload_max_filesize.

    I tried tweaking PHP post_max_size and upload_max_filesize in php.ini but didn't increase upload limit, unfortunately. Neither did tweaking wp-config.php or .htaccess leading me to believe it would be the webhosting's resource limits. I will contact them some time to inquire about the exact limits.

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  • edrebeedrebe OG

    Most shared hosting have limits. For example, they do not allow storing large videos. Therefore, I better use a VPS with KeyHelp as a control panel (values are entered directly in the user administration) and everything has been fine for 3 years.

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  • YmpkerYmpker OGContent Writer
    edited February 20

    @edrebe said:
    Most shared hosting have limits. For example, they do not allow storing large videos. Therefore, I better use a VPS with KeyHelp as a control panel (values are entered directly in the user administration) and everything has been fine for 3 years.

    Definitely the better choice. But for various reasons, I have refrained from offering hosting along with my services which is why I unfortunately have to deal with various technical setups (definitely a drawback).

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  • poppzpoppz

    Wouldn't something like WP Offload Media or similar work, using any S3 compatible storage? I use something similar on my wife's site for her course videos, but it's got built in support for Bunny.net storage/CDN which is great.

    I personally use Bunny.net for all my storage/CDN needs, so may be a bit biased there. :D

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  • DazzleDazzle OG

    If I'm not mistaken, you can upload via any File Manager WP plugin, it bypasses PHP upload limit.

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  • vyasvyas OG
    edited February 22

    If the client is willing to consider a “Lifetime” video hosting deal, get one. Quite a few around, check upload and bandwidth limits.
    Upto 60 US Dollar one time would be my cap on a standalone video, with option of hosting 8-10 more videos. Remember, cost of making one video can often exceed cost of hosting several of them

    Embed the video, I use gumlet, alugha. Other than Vimeo. Former from my country, latter from yours :-)

    Edit: good list of options and answers in this discussion ! I prefer uploading large media files elsewhere to keep size of backups as small as possible

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  • YmpkerYmpker OGContent Writer

    @poppz said:
    Wouldn't something like WP Offload Media or similar work, using any S3 compatible storage? I use something similar on my wife's site for her course videos, but it's got built in support for Bunny.net storage/CDN which is great.

    I personally use Bunny.net for all my storage/CDN needs, so may be a bit biased there. :D

    Might be an idea, but probably not worth the effort for the 2 videos on the site. Occasionally there will be a new video, but not that many.

    @Dazzle said:
    If I'm not mistaken, you can upload via any File Manager WP plugin, it bypasses PHP upload limit.

    Will check it out, thanks!

    @vyas said:
    If the client is willing to consider a “Lifetime” video hosting deal, get one. Quite a few around, check upload and bandwidth limits.
    Upto 60 US Dollar one time would be my cap on a standalone video, with option of hosting 8-10 more videos. Remember, cost of making one video can often exceed cost of hosting several of them

    Embed the video, I use gumlet, alugha. Other than Vimeo. Former from my country, latter from yours :-)

    Edit: good list of options and answers in this discussion ! I prefer uploading large media files elsewhere to keep size of backups as small as possible

    Thanks for the suggestion mate :) It's only 2 videos so far and hosting them on YT would be free, even. So I don't really think a LTD video hosting service would be worth it. Plus, if the LTD service was to close and clients video suddenly gone/not working I'd be the one to blame. YT is less likely to go anywhere anytime soon.

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  • vyasvyas OG
    edited February 22

    Fair points. Vimeo is less intrusive or overall lesser of the two evils. Though I wonder if a (Xing equivalent of LinkedIn) EU based video host exists

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  • mfsmfs OG

    @Ympker said: What is your usual workflow in such situations?

    Assuming you have no shell access (no wp cli, no complete control over your hosting environment) and assuming you certainly have some spare idling boxes laying around (...) I'd at least recompress that behemoth to an appropriate size offering video/webm;codecs="vp9", video/webm;codecs="vp8", video/mp4 (with MOOV atoms to the front) and I'd differentiate mobile and desktop users too; then I'd host the vids on a spare box of mine and I'd embed those vids from there.

    or, just host it on YT/Vimeo as already suggested

  • bikegremlinbikegremlin ModeratorOGContent Writer

    @Ympker said:

    YT is less likely to go anywhere anytime soon.

    I'm sad to inform you that I'm active on YouTube, so you might want to reconsider that longetivity estimation...

    :)

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  • YmpkerYmpker OGContent Writer

    @mfs said:

    @Ympker said: What is your usual workflow in such situations?

    Assuming you have no shell access (no wp cli, no complete control over your hosting environment) and assuming you certainly have some spare idling boxes laying around (...) I'd at least recompress that behemoth to an appropriate size offering video/webm;codecs="vp9", video/webm;codecs="vp8", video/mp4 (with MOOV atoms to the front) and I'd differentiate mobile and desktop users too; then I'd host the vids on a spare box of mine and I'd embed those vids from there.

    or, just host it on YT/Vimeo as already suggested

    Yup, I don't have shell access to wp cli import the media, but the client might have shell access (just not using it). I'll inquire about this. Regarding compressing the video clip, that might actually be a good idea. I won't host it on my (idle) vps as that's not their purpose and since I don't offer hosting in general (for various reasons, as mentioned above) I also won't host the videos. YT/Vimeo might be a solid option if new videos were to keep coming up. If it's 1 video per year like now,
    it's not that much a hassle.

    @bikegremlin said:

    @Ympker said:

    YT is less likely to go anywhere anytime soon.

    I'm sad to inform you that I'm active on YouTube, so you might want to reconsider that longetivity estimation...

    :)

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  • elliotcelliotc OG

    How about cut the video into m3u8 hls.

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  • nightcatnightcat

    @bikegremlin said:

    @Ympker said:
    So, recently a client wanted me to embed a whopping 700MB video on their WordPress site (ofc hosted on the webserver) and

    try show the phpinfo() at some where to check the setting is working.

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  • edrebeedrebe OG
    edited February 22

    I use Nextcloud on shared hosting, and from there I embed Wordpress on the site with the video tag

    To upload the file I use the Nextcloud desktop application.

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