Media Libraries Bringing Site Down

Not sure if it makes a difference but for your ref the site has ~75,000 images.

Having 75,000 images in a site’s media library might require a longer time for database queries to complete and website server limits the amount of time it can spend on a single task. This is know as the maximum execution time. It usually set at 30 seconds. There is a way that this time limit can be raised as is explained in the troubleshooting tips on the Support page of the plugin on your site:

Fatal error: Maximum execution time exceeded

The Maximum execution time error takes place when moving, syncing or uploading too many files at one time. The web site’s server has a setting for how long it can be busy with a task. Depending on your server, size of files and the transmission speed of your internet, you may need to reduce the number of files you upload or move at one time.

It is possible to change the maximum execution time either with a plugin such as WP Maximum Execution Time Exceeded or by editing your site’s .htaccess file and adding this line:

php_value max_execution_time 300

Which will raise the maximum execution time to five minutes.

Try raising the site maximum execution time.

Great this seems to have done the job so thank you for that.

Using the plugin WP Crontrol I’ve lowered the CRON run frequency for admin_check_for_new_folders too to once per week, is this going to have any negative impact on the plugin would you know?

The only problem is when WordPress adds a new folder and then a new file is uploaded to the folder. The plugin will not be able to update the database with the proper folder ID so the file will not be included when viewing the contents of the folder in the Media Library Folders. It is better to run admin_check_for_new_folders at least once per day.

Thanks Alan, appreciate it!