The link you followed has expired: This is the error which scares a lot of people when all of a sudden they see it on their screen while performing a simple task like installing a new theme on their WordPress website. One of the main reasons as to why people tend to get afraid of this error is simply because it does not give much information about what’s wrong.

Well, it looks like that you recently came across this error on your WordPress website and are looking to get it fixed asap. Don’t you worry as we at Illusic Solutions have got you covered. Today, in this post, we would be sharing how to quickly fix The link you followed has expired error WordPress. If that sounds interesting, let us hop right into it. Should we?
The link you followed has expired error in WordPress
Before we get straight to how to fix the link you followed has expired error, let us first take a look at what this error means and what are the causes for the same.
What does The link you followed has expired error means?
The link you followed has expired error usually occurs hen trying to upload themes and plugins via the WordPress dashboard. This means that the zip file that you are trying to upload and install is more than the default upload and execution limits set by WordPress.
As you might have expected an easy way to counterpart or fix this error would be to increase the maximum upload file size of your WordPress website which in turn will allow you to upload your theme or plugin file. Let us now quickly take a look at What causes the error to occur.
What causes The link you followed has expired error?
An easy way to find out if the maximum upload file size is less than that of your theme or plugin file is to take a look at the default limits being set by WordPress. Here are the steps which you need to perform in order to find out the default WordPress upload limits:
- First of all, you need to login to your WordPress website with Administrator Account.
- Now, go to Media > Add New.

- Here, you should be able to see the Maximum upload file size: being set by WordPress.
- Now, check if your plugin or theme’s zip file is larger than that size. If so, you are more likely to face this error.
With the causes and information about the error out of the way, let us now take a look at How to Fix The link you followed has expired error. Should we?
How to Fix The link you followed has expired
As we already know, we just need to increase the maximum upload file size wordpress to fix the error. We can do it using multiple ways, but assuming you don’t want to install additional plugins to your website, the best way would be to edit the core files and pasting a few lines of code.
Remember, you don’t need to follow all the methods, one or other method should work well for your website. If the first one does not work out for your website, then only try the next one.
Note: Before you proceed, make sure you backup everything just in case (unless you are really sure about what you are doing). If you don’t feel comfortable, it’s good to ask for the help from an expert, we do offer microtasks which you might wanna check out.
Method 1: Editing .htaccess file
In this method, we would edit the .htaccess file in order to increase maximum upload file size on wordpress and fix the link you followed has expired error.
Step 1: Login to your cPanel
Login to your Hosting Account and click on Login to cPanel. Alternatively, if you have the cPanel credentials, you can simply go over to yourdomain.com/cpanel URL and login from there.
If you don’t have the credentials or are using a VPS, simply go to Filezilla or any other FTP software and connect it to your VPS.
Step 2: Go to File Manager

In this step, you need to open the file manager from your cPanel. Alternatively, if you are using VPS, connect it to your hosting space using any FTP Client software.
Step 3: Edit the .htaccess file.

In your file manager go to your website directory (public_html in most cases) and find the file called .htaccess.
Right click on the file and select Edit.
Step 4: Add the code to .htaccess file.

In this step, you need to add the following code to the end of your htaccess file. You can change the size as per your requirements (64M).
php_value upload_max_filesize 64M
php_value post_max_size 64M
php_value max_execution_time 300
php_value max_input_time 300
That’s it! Now, retry uploading the plugin or theme’s zip file and see if it works now. In most of the cases, it should work just fine. But if in case it does not, feel free to try our next method.
Method 2: Editing php.ini file
If the above method didn’t worked for you, then you can try this method where we will be editing the php.ini file to increase maximum upload file size on our WordPress website.
Now, some hosting providers already have a php.ini file in the root directory of the website. Check for this file. If it doesn’t exist, then follow both the steps. If however, the file do exist, you can skip the first step. With that being said, let us now take a look at the steps which you need to follow. Should we?
Step 1: Creating a php.ini file
If you don’t already have a file called php.ini in your website directory (public_html in most cases). Then you need to create this file. To do so, click on the Add New file button in the file manager.

Give this file a name, php.ini and click on create.
Step 2: Editing the php.ini file
Now, you need to right-click on the php.ini file which you just created and paste in the following code at the end.
upload_max_filesize = 64M
post_max_size = 64M
max_execution_time = 300
Once done, click on the Save Changes or Update button to save the file. That’s it! Now, retry uploading the plugin or theme’s zip file and see if it works now.
But I don’t code, can you guys do it for me?
Are you someone who is not familiar with adding codes or are afraid of adding it on your own? Well, if that is the case, then we can help you out with the same. Feel free to reach out to us.
To conclude, this post shares how you could fix The link you followed has expired on your wordpress website. That’s it for this tutorial, let us know if you have any questions or issues regarding the same. We would love to help you out.