Flying Pigs — Advanced Settings

The Advanced panel is the last panel under Settings on the Media > Flying Pigs Uploader page.

It holds the settings for difficult hosts, upload tuning, logging and support. Flying Pigs works with the defaults on almost every host, so leave this panel alone unless you are fixing a specific upload problem or support has asked you to change something.

Only administrators can change these settings. Items marked Pro are in Flying Pigs Pro only.

Server limits are read, not typed

There are no fields for PHP's post_max_size or upload_max_filesize. Flying Pigs reads the server's limits and sizes every upload request to fit under them. Large files are sent in pieces, so there is no file size limit. If the server still refuses a request as too large, Flying Pigs halves the request size and sends it again.

The throttling settings below can only slow uploads down. They cannot get around your host's limits, PHP limits or security rules.

Upload timeout

Upload timeout (sec) is how long a run keeps going when uploads are failing. Every failed request is retried. The run stops only when this much time passes without a single successful upload.

The default is 370 seconds. Raise it for a host that goes quiet for minutes at a time, or for a connection that drops out.

Server IO limit

Server IO limit (MB/s) caps how much upload data reaches the server each second. The default is 0, unlimited.

Set it if your hosting plan has a strict disk IO limit, or if uploads fail when too much data arrives at once.

Files per second

Files per second caps how many media files the server takes in each second. The default is 0, unlimited.

Set it when the server accepts the files but falls over when too many arrive too quickly.

Pause uploads

Pause uploads stops sending every set number of seconds for a set pause, for example every 60 seconds for 6 seconds. It is off by default.

Use it on hosts that cap CPU over a time window. The interval starts once the uploads in flight have finished.

Batch size limit

Batch size limit (MB) is the most data Flying Pigs puts in one upload request, from 2 to 25 MB. The default is 25 MB.

The first batch of each run goes out at half this size. After that, Flying Pigs sizes each batch to the speed it measures, so a slow connection gets smaller batches on its own. Lower the limit if single requests are timing out on a slow or resource-limited server.

Image workers

Image workers is how many photos your browser processes at the same time. The default is 0, which picks a number from your computer's processor cores.

Each worker can use up to 1 GB of memory during a run. On a computer with little memory, or when the browser tab crashes on big runs, set a lower number such as 2.

Link check (Pro)

Check my link measures two speeds:

• Your line: it sends 10 MB to Cloudflare's nearest edge to time your internet connection.
• This host: it sends 10 MB to your site in one stream to time the connection to your host. The test data is thrown away.

It then tells you which one sets the pace. When the host is the slow side, extra upload lanes help. Flying Pigs remembers the result for the site and uses it to size the first batch of every run. Forget clears it.

Automatic link check (Pro)

Off by default, so nothing outside your site is contacted until you press Check my link. When it is on, the check runs by itself when no result is saved. The page also asks Cloudflare once per visit which edge is nearest, and checks again when that changes, for example after a move, a new network or a VPN.

Upload lanes (turbo boost) (Pro)

Upload lanes is how many uploads run side by side. Free uses one lane.

The default is Auto. Auto uses up to six lanes, and drops to two for the rest of the run if the server slows down or answers 503 or 429. More lanes help most on hosts that hold each connection to a low speed, which many shared hosts do.

You can also pick 1, 2, 4 or 6. A fixed 4 or 6 turns off the automatic back-off, so on shared or budget hosts it can trip the host's throttling and stall the run. Leave it on Auto unless you know your host handles parallel uploads.

Browser processing

On by default. Photos are resized, converted and optimized in your browser before they upload.

Off uploads the original files and lets WordPress make the sizes on the server, the way its own uploader does. Use that for timing comparisons. The change applies from the next run.

Pop-out progress

On by default. When a run starts, a small always-on-top progress window opens, so you can work in other windows and the run keeps full speed.

It works in Chrome, Edge, Brave and Firefox. A browser that cannot open the window shows progress on the page only.

Logging and support

Two logs help diagnose upload problems: one in your browser and one on the server.

Browser log level

What the browser records: Off, Errors, Info or Verbose. The default is Errors, which catches lane drops, server errors and worker crashes, the things that usually explain a slow run.

Server debug logging

The same four levels for the server side. The default is Errors. The server writes daily log files to wp-content/uploads/fpig-logs/, a folder that is blocked from the web.

The log buttons

• Download browser log saves the browser log to your Downloads folder. Use the browser's "Show in folder" on the download to find it.
• Clear browser log empties the browser log.
• View server log shows the last 200 lines of the server log on the page.
• Reset server logs deletes the server log files.

Support may ask you to raise a log level, clear the logs, run the upload again, and send the log. The steps:

1. Set Browser log level to Info, or to what support asked for.
2. Click Clear browser log and Reset server logs.
3. Run the upload again.
4. Click Download browser log, and View server log if support asked for it.
5. Attach the file to your ticket.

Open Support Ticket (Pro)

Opens the help desk to start a ticket. Include:

• Your WordPress site address
• Your hosting provider
• The Flying Pigs version (Free or Pro, and the number)
• Your browser
• A short description of the problem
• The log file, if support asked for it

Reset all settings to defaults

Puts the settings panels back to their defaults for the whole site and clears your own run options. Click it twice to confirm. Your Pro license is kept, and other users' run options are not touched. See How Flying Pigs saves your settings.

Recommended settings

For most sites, leave the Advanced panel as it is:

• Upload timeout: 370 seconds
• Server IO limit: 0 (unlimited)
• Files per second: 0 (unlimited)
• Pause uploads: off
• Batch size limit: 25 MB
• Image workers: 0 (auto)
• Upload lanes: Auto (Pro)
• Browser processing: on
• Pop-out progress: on
• Browser log level and Server debug logging: Errors

Reach for the throttling settings only when uploads fail, time out or trip your host's resource limits. They make uploads gentler on the server. They cannot raise what the server allows.