How To Fix ‘The Link You Followed Has Expired’ Error in WordPress

This error usually appears when you’re trying to upload a new WordPress theme or plugin to your WordPress website via the admin area.

WordPress hosting companies will apply a setting that controls the file size that you can upload while using the WordPress admin area. There’s also a setting that stops scripts from running too long. You can always see what this upload image is by visiting the ‘Media’ page and then ‘Add New’ option.

These restrictions are designed to make your website safer and improves the performance of the server.

If the settings are too low however, or the file you’re trying to upload is a larger file than is allowed, you will see memory exhausted errors or maximum execution time exceeded error.

If the file is a plugin/theme, then you would see the ‘The Link You Followed Has Expired’ error.

The easiest and quickest way to fix the error is to increase the restrictions on your website. This might include increasing the limits on the file upload size, PHP memory and the execution time limits for your WordPress website.

There are numerous ways that you can do this.

The first option is the easiest. However, there is a downside that the old limits will be reverted if you ever change your theme.

However, this option is to simply use a FTP client to open up your functions.php file and then add in the following code:

@ini_set( 'upload_max_size' , '120M' );
@ini_set( 'post_max_size', '120M');
@ini_set( 'max_execution_time', '300' );

You can change the values to be more suitable for your needs if be. You might want to double the numbers for really large files.

Open your .htaccess file using an FTP client. Then move to the bottom of the document and add in the following lines of code.

php_value upload_max_filesize 128M
php_value post_max_size 128M
php_value max_execution_time 300
php_value max_input_time 300

Ensure that you save the document and re-upload it to your website before exiting.

Connect to your WordPress website using an FTP client and then look for the php.ini file that is located within the site’s root folder. If you’re on a shared hosting account, you might not find it. Therefore, create a blank php.ini file via a plain text editor (i.e. Notepad).

Within the php.ini file, add the following lines of code.

upload_max_filesize = 128M
post_max_size = 128M
max_execution_time = 300

Ensure that you save the changes to the file and re-upload it back to the website.

After you’ve made the changes, have a go at re-uploading the theme/plugin. It should now work. Or you might need to add more memory size to the document.