PHP 7.0.6 Released

    Error Messages Explained

    PHP returns an appropriate error code along with the file array. The error code can be found in the error segment of the file array that is created during the file upload by PHP. In other words, the error might be found in $_FILES['userfile']['error'].

    UPLOAD_ERR_OK

    Value: 0; There is no error, the file uploaded with success.

    UPLOAD_ERR_INI_SIZE

    Value: 1; The uploaded file exceeds the upload_max_filesize directive in php.ini.

    UPLOAD_ERR_FORM_SIZE

    Value: 2; The uploaded file exceeds the MAX_FILE_SIZE directive that was specified in the HTML form.

    UPLOAD_ERR_PARTIAL

    Value: 3; The uploaded file was only partially uploaded.

    UPLOAD_ERR_NO_FILE

    Value: 4; No file was uploaded.

    UPLOAD_ERR_NO_TMP_DIR

    Value: 6; Missing a temporary folder. Introduced in PHP 5.0.3.

    UPLOAD_ERR_CANT_WRITE

    Value: 7; Failed to write file to disk. Introduced in PHP 5.1.0.

    UPLOAD_ERR_EXTENSION

    Value: 8; A PHP extension stopped the file upload. PHP does not provide a way to ascertain which extension caused the file upload to stop; examining the list of loaded extensions with phpinfo() may help. Introduced in PHP 5.2.0.

    User Contributed Notes

    Anonymous
    7 years ago
    [EDIT BY danbrown AT php DOT net: This code is a fixed version of a note originally submitted by (Thalent, Michiel Thalen) on 04-Mar-2009.]


    This is a handy exception to use when handling upload errors:

    <?php

    class UploadException extends Exception
    {
        public function     __construct($code) {
                $message = $this->codeToMessage($code);
                parent::__construct($message, $code);
        }

        private function     codeToMessage($code)
        {
            switch (    $code) {
                case     UPLOAD_ERR_INI_SIZE:
                        $message = "The uploaded file exceeds the upload_max_filesize directive in php.ini";
                    break;
                case     UPLOAD_ERR_FORM_SIZE:
                        $message = "The uploaded file exceeds the MAX_FILE_SIZE directive that was specified in the HTML form";
                    break;
                case     UPLOAD_ERR_PARTIAL:
                        $message = "The uploaded file was only partially uploaded";
                    break;
                case     UPLOAD_ERR_NO_FILE:
                        $message = "No file was uploaded";
                    break;
                case     UPLOAD_ERR_NO_TMP_DIR:
                        $message = "Missing a temporary folder";
                    break;
                case     UPLOAD_ERR_CANT_WRITE:
                        $message = "Failed to write file to disk";
                    break;
                case     UPLOAD_ERR_EXTENSION:
                        $message = "File upload stopped by extension";
                    break;

                default:
                        $message = "Unknown upload error";
                    break;
            }
            return     $message;
        }
    }

    // Use
    if ($_FILES['file']['error'] === UPLOAD_ERR_OK) {
    //uploading successfully done
    } else {
    throw new     UploadException($_FILES['file']['error']);
    }
    ?>
    adam at gotlinux dot us
    10 years ago
    This is probably useful to someone.

    <?php
    array(
                0=>"There is no error, the file uploaded with success",
                1=>"The uploaded file exceeds the upload_max_filesize directive in php.ini",
                2=>"The uploaded file exceeds the MAX_FILE_SIZE directive that was specified in the HTML form"
                3=>"The uploaded file was only partially uploaded",
                4=>"No file was uploaded",
                6=>"Missing a temporary folder"
    );
    ?>
    Viktor
    1 year ago
    Update to Adams old comment.

    This is probably useful to someone.

    <?php

    $phpFileUploadErrors     = array(
            0 => 'There is no error, the file uploaded with success',
            1 => 'The uploaded file exceeds the upload_max_filesize directive in php.ini',
            2 => 'The uploaded file exceeds the MAX_FILE_SIZE directive that was specified in the HTML form',
            3 => 'The uploaded file was only partially uploaded',
            4 => 'No file was uploaded',
            6 => 'Missing a temporary folder',
            7 => 'Failed to write file to disk.',
            8 => 'A PHP extension stopped the file upload.',
    );
    stephen at poppymedia dot co dot uk
    10 years ago
    if post is greater than post_max_size set in php.ini

    $_FILES and $_POST will return empty
    Jeff Miner mrjminer AT gmail DOT com
    5 years ago
    One thing that is annoying is that the way these constant values are handled requires processing no error with the equality, which wastes a little bit of space.  Even though "no error" is 0, which typically evaluates to "false" in an if statement, it will always evaluate to true in this context.

    So, instead of this:
    -----
    <?php
    if($_FILES['userfile']['error']) {
          // handle the error
    } else {
          // process
    }
    ?>
    -----
    You have to do this:
    -----
    <?php
    if($_FILES['userfile']['error']==0) {
          // process
    } else {
          // handle the error
    }
    ?>
    -----
    Also, ctype_digit fails, but is_int works.  If you're wondering... no, it doesn't make any sense.

    To Schoschie:

    You ask the question:  Why make stuff complicated when you can make it easy?  I ask the same question since the version of the code you / Anonymous / Thalent (per danbrown) have posted is unnecessary overhead and would result in a function call, as well as a potentially lengthy switch statement.  In a loop, that would be deadly... try this instead:

    -----
    <?php
    $error_types     = array(
    1=>'The uploaded file exceeds the upload_max_filesize directive in php.ini.',
    'The uploaded file exceeds the MAX_FILE_SIZE directive that was specified in the HTML form.',
    'The uploaded file was only partially uploaded.',
    'No file was uploaded.',
    6=>'Missing a temporary folder.',
    'Failed to write file to disk.',
    'A PHP extension stopped the file upload.'
    );

    // Outside a loop...
    if($_FILES['userfile']['error']==0) {
          // process
    } else {
          $error_message = $error_types[$_FILES['userfile']['error']];
          // do whatever with the error message
    }

    // In a loop...
    for($x=0,$y=count($_FILES['userfile']['error']);$x<$y;++$x) {
      if(    $_FILES['userfile']['error'][$x]==0) {
            // process
          } else {
            $error_message = $error_types[$_FILES['userfile']['error'][$x]];
            // Do whatever with the error message
          }
    }

    // When you're done... if you aren't doing all of this in a function that's about to end / complete all the processing and want to reclaim the memory
    unset($error_types);
    ?>
    sysadmin at cs dot fit dot edu
    11 years ago
    I noticed that on PHP-4.3.2 that $_FILES can also not be set if the file uploaded exceeds the limits set by upload-max-filesize in the php.ini, rather than setting error $_FILES["file"]["error"]
    jille at quis dot cx
    6 years ago
    UPLOAD_ERR_PARTIAL is given when the mime boundary is not found after the file data. A possibly cause for this is that the upload was cancelled by the user (pressed ESC, etc).
    Tom
    5 years ago
    Note: something that might surprise you, PHP also provides a value in the $_FILES array, if the input element has no value at all, stating an error UPLOAD_ERR_NO_FILE.

    So UPLOAD_ERR_NO_FILE is not an error, but a note that the input element just had no value. Thus you can't rely on the $_FILES array to see if a file was provided. Instead you have to walk the array and check every single damn entry - which can be quite difficult since the values may be nested if you use input elements named like "foo[bar][bla]".

    Seems like PHP just introduced you to yet another common pitfall.
    svenr at selfhtml dot org
    9 years ago
    Clarification on the MAX_FILE_SIZE hidden form field and the UPLOAD_ERR_FORM_SIZE error code:

    PHP has the somewhat strange feature of checking multiple "maximum file sizes".

    The two widely known limits are the php.ini settings "post_max_size" and "upload_max_size", which in combination impose a hard limit on the maximum amount of data that can be received.

    In addition to this PHP somehow got implemented a soft limit feature. It checks the existance of a form field names "max_file_size" (upper case is also OK), which should contain an integer with the maximum number of bytes allowed. If the uploaded file is bigger than the integer in this field, PHP disallows this upload and presents an error code in the $_FILES-Array.

    The PHP documentation also makes (or made - see bug #40387 - http://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=40387) vague references to "allows browsers to check the file size before uploading". This, however, is not true and has never been. Up til today there has never been a RFC proposing the usage of such named form field, nor has there been a browser actually checking its existance or content, or preventing anything. The PHP documentation implies that a browser may alert the user that his upload is too big - this is simply wrong.

    Please note that using this PHP feature is not a good idea. A form field can easily be changed by the client. If you have to check the size of a file, do it conventionally within your script, using a script-defined integer, not an arbitrary number you got from the HTTP client (which always must be mistrusted from a security standpoint).
    tyler at fishmas dot org
    11 years ago
    In regards to the dud filename being sent, a very simple way to check for this is to check the file size as well as the file name.  For example, to check the file size simple use the size attribute in your file info array:

    <?php
    if($_FILES["file_id"]["size"]  == 0)
    {
                 // ...PROCESS ERROR
    }
    ?>
    web att lapas dott id dott lv
    9 years ago
    1. And what about multiple file upload ? - If there is an UPLOAD_ERR_INI_SIZE error with multiple files - we can`t detect it normaly ? ...because that we have an array, but this error returns null and can`t use foreach. So, by having a multiple upload, we can`t normaly inform user about that.. we can just detect, that sizeof($_FILES["file"]["error"]) == 0 , but we can`t actualy return an error code. The max_file_size also is not an exit, becouse it refers on each file seperatly, but upload_max_filesize directive in php.ini refers to all files together. So, for example, if upload_max_filesize=8Mb , max_file_size = 7Mb and one of my files is 6.5Mb and other is 5Mb, it exeeds the upload_max_filesize - cant return an error, becouse we don`t know where to get that error.
    Unfortunately we cannot get the file sizes on client side, even AJAX normaly can`t do that.

    2. If in file field we paste something, like, D:\whatever , then there also isn`t an error to return in spite of that no such file at all.
    rlerne at gmail dot com
    1 year ago
    This updates "adam at gotlinux dot us" above and makes it version aware, and also adds newer constants to the array.

    The reason we want to check the version is that the constants are not defined in earlier versions, and they appear later in the array. They would effectively overwrite the "0" index (no error) with an error message when the file actually uploaded fine.

    It also drops the constant's value (0,1,2, etc) for the errors, in the likely event that they are changed later (the code should still work fine).

    <?php

    $upload_errors     = array(
            0                        => "There is no error, the file uploaded with success"
            ,UPLOAD_ERR_INI_SIZE    => "The uploaded file exceeds the upload_max_filesize directive in php.ini"
            ,UPLOAD_ERR_FORM_SIZE    => "The uploaded file exceeds the MAX_FILE_SIZE directive that was specified in the HTML form"
            ,UPLOAD_ERR_PARTIAL        => "The uploaded file was only partially uploaded"
            ,UPLOAD_ERR_NO_FILE        => "No file was uploaded"
    );

    if (    version_compare(PHP_VERSION, '5.0.3') >= 0)
            $upload_errors[UPLOAD_ERR_NO_TMP_DIR] = "Missing a temporary folder";

    if (    version_compare(PHP_VERSION, '5.1.0') >= 0)
            $upload_errors[UPLOAD_ERR_CANT_WRITE] = "Failed to write to disk";

    if (    version_compare(PHP_VERSION, '5.2.0') >= 0)
            $upload_errors[UPLOAD_ERR_EXTENSION] = "File upload stopped by extension";
    ?>
    belowtherim2000 at yahoo dot com
    8 years ago
    I've been playing around with the file size limits and with respect to the post_max_size setting, there appears to be a hard limit of 2047M.  Any number that you specify above that results in a failed upload without any informative error describing what went wrong.  This happens regardless of how small the file you're uploading may be.  On error, my page attempts to output the name of the original file.  But what I discovered is that this original file name, which I maintained in a local variable, actually gets corrupted.  Even my attempt to output the error code in $_FILES['uploadedfiles']['error'] returns an empty string/value.

    Hopefully, this tidbit will save someone else some grief.
    Tom
    1 year ago
    As it is common to use move_uploaded_file with file uploads, how to get it's error messages should be noted here (especially since it's not noted anywhere else in the manual).
    Common code is to do something like:
    if (move_uploaded_file($_FILES["file1"]["tmp_name"], $target_file)) {
          echo "<P>FILE UPLOADED TO: $target_file</P>";
       } else {
          echo "<P>MOVE UPLOADED FILE FAILED!!</P>";
          print_r(error_get_last());
       }
    Dub Spencer
    11 years ago
    Upload doesnt work, and no error?

    actually, both $_FILES and $_REQUEST in the posted to script are empty?

    just see, if  "post_max_size" is lower than the data you want to load.

    in the apache error log, there will be an entry like "Invalid method in request". and in the access log, there will be two requests: one for the POST, and another that starts with all "----" and produces a 501.
    krissv at ifi.uio.no
    11 years ago
    When $_FILES etc is empty like Dub spencer says in the note at the top and the error is not set, that might be because the form enctype isnt sat correctly. then nothing more than maybe a http server error happens.

    enctype="multipart/form-data" works fine
    info at foto50 dot com
    8 years ago
    For those reading this manual in german (and/or probably some other languages) and you miss error numbers listed here, have a look to the english version of this page ;)
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