Increasing WordPress’s 8MB limit with MAMP Pro

TL;DR

• When using MAMP Pro for local WordPress, increase the default 8MB upload limit to 64mb by adding a .user.ini file in the root.

MAMP is a great tool for locally developing WordPress sites on macOS.

In addition to its ability to manage multiple installs, the upgraded MAMP Pro version also allows you to specify an install’s PHP version.

The primary drawback with MAMP is it sets an install’s default settings to limit your uploads to 8MB. For almost any site, an 8MB limit doesn’t cut it.

The first step to increasing the 8MB limit is changing the settings from “Identical PHP versions” to “Individual PHP Versions” on the PHP page.

The final step is creating a “.user.ini” file within the site’s root directory. Since it’s an invisible file (due to the preceding period) you will probably need to use your IDE of choice.

Below are the necessary entries to the .user.ini file to increase the 8MB limit to 64MB.

upload_max_filesize = 64M
post_max_size = 64M
memory_limit = 400M
file_uploads = On
max_execution_time = 180