How to Overcome Maximum Execution Time limit in WordPress Without any Fatal Error

Who doesn’t know of WordPress? We all know WordPress as one of the most popular blogging software available over the web at the moment. It is an open source software which has not only made blogging fun, but has also made setting up blogs and websites quicker and simpler. Moreover, WordPress offers over 32 K templates, which can be changed from time to time, without causing any alteration in the content present on the website. Besides, WordPress also offers a variety of plug-ins. Plug-ins are the various shortcuts you would like to install in order to increase the functionality of your WordPress site and hence decreasing your work load.

Isn’t WordPress just perfect? It can possibly never have any grave issues, right? Well some recent reports say otherwise. Recently there have been complaints from WordPress users about an error which occurs while they try to update their WP. It reads something like this, ‘Fatal Error: Maximum Execution Time Exceeded’. Have you also been bugged by such an issue lately? Don’t worry! Just take a deep breath and just read through this post. We’ve written this to help you in such circumstances.

As you know that WordPress is coded in PHP, which is a language developed for general purpose and is most suitable for web development. Every PHP coded file has a PHP run-time which means there is a set time limit for how long a PHP script can be accessed. If you exceed that time limit, then the error which you face is the ‘Maximum Execution Time Exceeded’ error. This is done in order to protect your web servers from any kind of cyber abuse.

So the next question which arises is – how can we fix this error? This can be done in two ways:

• Edit your .htaccess file
• Use a plug-in

.htaccess file is a directory level configuration file that enhances your sites performance and ensures its security. For editing your .htacsess file, first locate this file in your WordPress folder and simply type the following command into the file:

php_value max_execution_time 300

This will set the time limit to 300 seconds or 5 minutes. If you still face the same error, then try increasing the time limit to 600 seconds and I am sure you won’t face the same error again.

If you are unable to find the .htaccess file or don’t want to edit it manually, then there is yet another method which uses WordPress plug-ins to deal with this matter. As already mentioned, plug-ins are shortcuts offered by WordPress. Hence, a WP Maximum Execution Time Exceeded plug-in can be installed to increase the maximum execution time limit to 300 seconds. Once you run this plug-in, hopefully you’ll not have to face the same error ever again.