How can I insert large files in MySQL db using PHP?

Question

I want to upload a large file of maximum size 10MB to my MySQL database. Using .htaccess I changed PHP's own file upload limit to "10485760" = 10MB. I am able to upload files up to 10MB without any problem.

But I can not insert the file in the database if it is more that 1 MB in size.

I am using file_get_contents to read all file data and pass it to the insert query as a string to be inserted into a LONGBLOB field.

But files bigger than 1 MB are not added to the database, although I can use print_r($_FILES) to make sure that the file is uploaded correctly. Any help will be appreciated and I will need it within the next 6 hours. So, please help!

Answer 1

You will want to check the MySQL configuration value "max_allowed_packet", which might be set too small, preventing the INSERT (which is large itself) from happening.

Run the following from a mysql command prompt:

mysql> show variables like 'max_allowed_packet';

Make sure its large enough. For more information on this config option see

MySQL max_allowed_packet

This also impacts mysql_escape_string() and mysql_real_escape_string() in PHP limiting the size of the string creation.

Answer 2

As far as I know it's generally quicker and better practice not to store the file in the db as it will get massive very quickly and slow it down. It's best to make a way of storing the file in a directory and then just store the location of the file in the db.

We do it for images/pdfs/mpegs etc in the CMS we have at work by creating a folder for the file named from the url-safe filename and storing the folder name in the db. It's easy just to write out the url of it in the presentation layer then.