Fatal error: Out of memory – WordPress Update

Today I was attempting to update from WordPress 3.1 to 3.1.1. I run my blog on 1and1 and since it is shared hosting, I have limited memory to work with. I tried updating and was given this wonderful error.

Fatal error: Out of memory (allocated 29622272) (tried to allocate 3096504 bytes) in /homepages/27/d20110405/htdoc/blog1/wp-includes/class-http.php on line 1426

This is a memory related issue but it has nothing to do with the download itself. To fix my particular problem, all I had to do was turn my plugins off. There are lots of solutions for this but WordPress should have a method to turn off all plugins at once.

I turned my fourteen plugins off and then tried the update again. I was greeted with successful update message.

Downloading update from http://wordpress.org/wordpress-3.1.1.zip…
Unpacking the update…
Verifying the unpacked files…
Installing the latest version…
Upgrading database…
WordPress updated successfully

If your WordPress update fails due to not having enough memory, try disabling your plugins.

Comments

  1. Blake:

    Thanks for the post Ryan. I ran into the same problem tonight and wouldn’t have thought about just deactivating the plugins. Three seconds later and I could upgrade again.

    June 6, 2011 at 9:25 pm |
  2. Max Guedy:

    Brilliant solution!!!!!! Thank you so much

    July 11, 2011 at 3:00 am |
  3. jonhjonh:

    Hello Ryan,

    good idea to post this! I have found that a lot of wordpress users have trouble with this. I had this exact same issue too, and your solution worked until 3.1.1.

    But now, trying to update to 3.2.1, it does not work. I deactivate 14 plugins, and try the automatic update, and it fails, giving me the error again. Havent found a workaround yet. If you do, would be interested to know.

    Cheers

    Jonhjonh

    July 15, 2011 at 7:03 am |
  4. Harry:

    You sir are the MAN!!!

    August 25, 2011 at 1:18 am |
  5. Joe:

    trying to update to 3.2.1.

    It worked fine for me. I used the BULK ACTION and turned off all the plugins and the update from 3.1 to 3.2.1 worked flawlessly

    August 25, 2011 at 1:31 pm |
  6. Ryan:

    Glad it worked!

    August 25, 2011 at 1:32 pm |
  7. Aghper Jan:

    Thank you Ryan,I had the same problem after following your post i was able to successfully upgrade to the latest wordpress version.thank you

    September 1, 2011 at 8:25 pm |
  8. Alvaro Villa:

    Works!! Many many thanks!!!

    September 3, 2011 at 2:43 am |
  9. David H:

    Ryan! A Merry Christmas to you!
    I was running a WordPress development version and could not update to 3.3 due to that fatal error in class-http on line 1426.

    Tried various “fixes” including php.ini turn off safe_mode and various memory configs.

    Then I found your suggestion. I had turned off a number of plugins but NOT ALL.

    Deactivated rest and got my Auto Upgrade lickety-split!

    Thanks for the tip!

    December 25, 2011 at 1:27 pm |
  10. Jacob Burke:

    Thanks for the great tip! Was able to get my update done in no time by turning off the plugins!

    Cheers and Happy New Year!

    January 5, 2012 at 3:35 am |
  11. kent:

    Thanks for posting this. It worked great

    February 2, 2012 at 11:23 am |

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