Home > Docs > Product Import Export Plugin for WooCommerce > Memory Limitations while Importing or Exporting WooCommerce Products

Memory Limitations while Importing or Exporting WooCommerce Products

Last updated on November 14, 2023

Product Import Export Plugin For WooCommerce helps to export and import a huge amount of products from a WooCommerce website to a supported file format in a quick and easy way. While importing or exporting data of larger size, the memory limitations of your website or the time settings can cause errors. This can result in incomplete exported file while exporting or the import process seems to be taking a long time without any actual import taking place. This could be due to the memory limitations of your site. To overcome this scenario, the following can be done.

1. Increasing PHP memory and WordPress memory 

When your site is using more memory to import your files than it is capable of, this can generate errors. This can be overcome by increasing the PHP memory and WordPress Memory. Open the php.ini file in the wp-admin folder and change the memory_limit to the amount of memory you need to complete the import or export.

To increase your WordPress memory limit go to the wp-config.php file and change the memory parameter in
define('WP_MEMORY_LIMIT', '256M');

2. Increase the maximum execution time

If the import or export is taking longer to complete and the process times out, increasing the maximum execution time can fix this error. Try increasing the time limit in seconds in any of the following.

  • Change set_time_limit in wp-config.php,
  • Change max_execution_time in the php.ini file, or
  • change php_value max_execution_time in the .htaccess file

3. Contact host

If the above does not work for you, your host’s limitation may be to blame. If increasing the PHP or WordPress memory does not work for you, or you don’t have access to php.ini you may contact your host and have them increase your memory limit.

Note: Dividing your input file into smaller input files with fewer entries can help improve the import speed.