If you’ve seen a notice in your WordPress admin which complains about a low Max Execution Time then this page will help you understand more.
What is Max Execution Time?
Max execution time is a server setting which defines how long the server should wait for a web page to load before killing the process. The intention here is to stop infinite loops and to keep web-servers responsive for multiple users, even if some pages are doing heavy loading.
Why does it matter?
Unfortunately this can interfere with a web-based CRM.
If you’re running a LARGE CSV import, for example, there’s a lot of processing that needs to be done by Jetpack CRM. There are several ways around this, and where we can we’ve broken processes into chunks.
Some areas retain this vulnerability though (CSV importer PRO), and will require further server setting changes to resolve (if you’re getting the warning). (Namely, increasing the max execution time).
How do I increase the max execution time?
There are several ways you can increase the value for this server setting. We recommend trying these in order.
If you want to see if one of these has worked, simply go to “Jetpack CRM > System Assistant > System Status” and there you can see the value “Max Execution Time”.
1) Ask your host
Most hosting companies get asked this question all the time. Here’s what you need to copy & paste to them. If they say “no” or they tell you this isn’t possible, it’s likely they have a very low limit and may be a good reason to try a new host.
What to send to your host:
Hi, I’d like to increase the max_execution_time server setting for my website *YOURWEBSITEHERE* – Please can you set it to 600 for this website.
Note: 600 here means 600 seconds, or ten minutes. Depending on the size of your CSV Import, this may not be enough. The danger here is setting it high and leaving it high does mean your pages could spend 10 minutes trying to load if they are badly coded (other than Jetpack CRM pages, which won’t.) We recommend you ask for this to be reset after doing a big import, unless you frequently need this feature.
2) HTACCESS File
To achieve this you’ll need to add or edit the .htaccess file at the root of your WordPress install, or domain and add the following line:
php_value max_execution_time 600