WordPress fix PDF Upload Crashes Site

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PDF Upload Crashes Site, by jonathanchase

I’ve encountered a repeatable but unusual problem: when I use the Media Library to upload a PDF file it begins to upload, then gives an HTTP error and the entire site goes offline! Not just the dashboard, the whole darn thing goes down for 10-15 minutes.

GoDaddy is our host so I tried going through cPanel and manually uploading the PDF. Poof, the site goes offline! And when I went back through cPanel and manually deleted the PDF file the site came back up in about 15 minutes without any further action on my end.

Any idea what’s causing this issue? I’m on a Windows PC, but the site owner does her work on a Mac. I’d like to upload PDF forms for our clients to download directly without needing to use a Google Docs link or something similar but obviously it doesn’t work if WordPress rejects PDFs and punishes me for trying with a site crash.

Any advice? Thanks!

-Jonathan (Portland, OR)

PDF Upload Crashes Site