I got "Export fails" or "Import Fails" Error - Can you try increasing web server timeout?

Scope: Prime Mover Free / Pro version

Background

This error indicates that your server’s timeout setting is insufficient to complete the process. Prime Mover usually indicates which specific method the error occurs in. So please take note when reporting or fixing this specific error. It could be the method that handles the database dump, copying the media directory, etc.

When this error occurs, Prime Mover executes the shutdown procedure, terminates the process, and cleans the temporary directory of any unfinished files or folders to prevent clogging your server.

There are several ways of fixing this error, which this tutorial shows.

Lower the default timeout retry value

By default, Prime Mover processes tasks in a 15-second interval batch. This may not be enough and could still hit a timeout if your server timeout is very slow. For example, there is a high chance of hitting the server timeout if it’s set to 20 or 30 seconds. In this case, try lowering the default timeout to 10 seconds, clearing your cache, and trying again.

Enable WordPress debug and check for fatal errors

Sometimes, PHP errors (usually fatal errors) can cause timeouts because PHP can no longer continue processing and hits a timeout (stalled process). You can check this by enabling WordPress debugging. The fatal runtime errors provide clues about what is causing them. If it’s caused by or points to a particular plugin, try deactivating that plugin and try again. Or if the error is caused by Prime Mover or you aren’t sure what to do, please submit a bug ticket to us.

Otherwise, if there are no PHP errors and you have tried lowering the retry timeout value as mentioned previously, it’s time to try server-side settings. If you cannot change the settings below due to hosting restrictions, it’s fine. Please create a support ticket so we can check for workarounds.

PHP-fpm timeout configuration steps

The following steps work for PHP 7.0+ PHP-FPM on Ubuntu 16.04 + Apache. This requires root access to your server. Ideally, you can get this with VPS or dedicated hosting.

Know your specific PHP version. You can get this via the WordPress admin -> Tools -> Site Health -> Info -> Server.
Log in to your SSH using root shell.
Go to this path: /etc/php/PHP_VERSION/fpm/pool.d , replace PHP_VERSION with your PHP version. For example, if you are using PHP 7.3.8, then it’s a PHP 7.3 version. So the path will be /etc/php/7.3/fpm/pool.d
Open the file www.conf
Look for request_terminate_timeout

By default request_terminate_timeout is disabled. So it will look like this (starts with semi-colon).

;request_terminate_timeout = 0

If you don’t have a semi-colon that starts with that, request_terminate_timeout, then it means it’s currently using that timeout setting for your PHP processes.

To disable it, make sure to add a semicolon before it. For example, say a 60-second timeout is currently imposed in your PHP process:

request_terminate_timeout = 60

You can disable that by adding a semi-colon:

;request_terminate_timeout = 60

However, if you only want to set a very high timeout, add the value, say, 1 hour.

request_terminate_timeout = 3600

Restart PHP-fpm and Apache. This is the command to use:

sudo service php7.3-fpm reload;sudo service apache2 restart;

That assumes your PHP version is 7.3, as illustrated in the example above. Replace php7.3-fpm with your actual PHP version (e.g., php7.0-fpm)

Changes needed on php.ini

Ideally, none, since Prime Mover already adjusts the runtime PHP timeout by using set_time_limit() and max_execution_time.

You can adjust memory_limit which is desirable to set as high as possible to avoid memory errors. However, Prime Mover will attempt to increase memory settings during runtime just like WordPress does.

Just in case you really want to customize and test php.ini settings, these are the most important settings if your hosting allows it (e.g., if your server can support 2GB memory or unlimited timeout)

upload_max_filesize=256M;
post_max_size=1024M;
memory_limit=2048M;
max_execution_time = 0;
max_input_time = 0;

If you are on a super-powerful dedicated server and exporting/restoring a very big site for which you have a big RAM (like 16GB or even bigger), by all means use it, e.g., setting

memory_limit=16384M;

This will configure 16GB for PHP to be used for your site.

Apache timeout configuration steps

Go to /etc/apache2/
Find the file apache2.conf
Look for Timeout directive, by default, this is set to 30 or 60 seconds. You will need to set this to a very high value, the same as you have set in PHP request_terminate_timeout

Note, in some configurations, this is added in httpd.conf. Please refer to this documentation in detail.

If you are using any timeout-related Apache module, you may need to disable or adjust them accordingly. For example https://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.4/mod/mod_reqtimeout.html