Commons:Maximum file size

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The maximum file size on Commons is set at 100 MiB (104,857,600 bytes).[1] This is now mainly because of technical issues in the uploading, rather than storage problems.[2][3][4] However, users who enable the experimental "Chunked uploads" setting in their user preferences benefit from a limit of 1 GiB (1,048,576,000 bytes).[5] Technically it is possible to upload files of any size using server-side upload.

This means that it is not possible to upload a file larger than the maximum file size without first breaking it into smaller parts, and uploading those parts as separate files. The template {{Split file}} can be used to link the parts of files split in this way.

Please note that every effort should be made to keep files under the file size limit without splitting them. There are various means to do this, including changing file formats, removing parts of a file not really needed, and downsampling resolution, increasing compression levels, etc. Only where these measures aren't enough (because further loss of detail would reduce quality too much) should files be split.

On the other hand, there is no limit to the total size of uploads by an individual account. However, if you plan batch uploads amounting to several TB, it may be wise to warn the sysadmins.

Maximum size for thumbnails[edit]


In addition to the general size restriction, for several filetypes (TIF and GIF) the software only produces thumbnails and previews on the main file description page below a certain size limit − currently, 50 megapixels.[6][7] For files where the software does not provide thumbnails because of this limitation, a thumbnail version (either a full-sized JPEG or a smaller PNG) should be uploaded for thumbnail/preview purposes, and linked with the main file. The templates {{Archival version}} and {{Compressed version}} are available for this.

PNG files now have a much larger limit, of very approximately 2,500 megapixels (since August 2013).

An unrelated reason thumbnails may fail to display (example) is for very long filenames - so long, that they approach the 255-byte limit of filename length (which for some cases with non-ASCII characters may be much less than 255 characters, due to UTF-8). Its impossible to upload a file that has a name this large, but it is possible to move a file to such a name. [8]. A similar issue can appear with videos. If the url for a transcode of a video file (with all non-ascii characters url-encoded) is more than 1024 bytes, the transcode will not be made.[9]

Technical notes[edit]

  1. It has been 20 MB for a while and was raised to 100 in November 2008.[1]
  2. Village pump (2011-11)
  3. Village pump (2011-11)
  4. Wikitech-l (2010-07)
  5. Originally 500 MiB -, increased to 1 GiB in November 2013 -
  6. The limit was 12.5 megapixels, or about 3500 x 3500, before Bugzilla: 41125 raised the limit in October 2012. The general limitation is under Bugzilla: 9497.
  7. This is because these filetypes can only be thumbnailed by MediaWiki's ImageMagick library by first decompressing the entire image in RAM, which can cause severe server loads.
  8. Bugzilla30202
  9. Example File:அறியாத_ஆசை_என்னும்_தமிழ்ப்_பாடலின்_நிகழ்பட_வடிவினை_எடுக்கும்_காட்சி.ogv