How to Fix “Sorry, This File Type Is Not Permitted for Security Reasons” Error in WordPress

Are you seeing ‘Sorry, this file type is not permitted for security reasons’ error in WordPress?

You can upload most common file types in WordPress without any error. However, you may see this error if the file type is not supported by WordPress.

In this article, we will show you how to easily fix ‘Sorry, this file type is not permitted for security reasons’ error in WordPress.

What Causes the “Sorry, This File Type Is Not Permitted for Security Reasons” Error?

The error “Sorry, this file type is not permitted for security reasons” appears when you try to upload a file type that WordPress does not support.

You may have seen this error message appear when trying to add a new file in your Media Library.

For security reasons, WordPress restricts the file types you can upload through your WordPress admin. The permitted file types include all common images, video, document, and audio formats.

One solution to fix this problem is to upload the files through FTP or your WordPress hosting file manager section.

However, it is not as convenient as using the built-in WordPress media library.

So let’s take a look at how to fix the “Sorry, this file type is not permitted for security reasons” error in WordPress.

• Check and fix file type extension spelling
• Allow new file types in WordPress with File Upload Types plugin
• Keeping your website secure when allowing additional file types

Check and Fix the File Type Extension Spelling

If you are trying to upload a common file type that you have previously uploaded without seeing this error, then it is likely that you have misspelled the file extension.

A file extension is the 3 or 4 letter filetype suffix that appears at the end of file names on your computer. For instance, an image file may be named holidayphoto.png where holidayphoto is the file name and png is the extension.

These extensions are used by many programs and applications including WordPress to recognize file types. Following are the default file types and extensions allowed by WordPress:

Images: .png, .gif, .jpg, .jpeg, .ico
Documents: .pdf, .doc, .docx, .xls, .xlsx, .ppt, .pptx, .pps, .ppsx, .odt, .psd
Audio: .wav, .mp3, .m4a, .ogg
Video: .mp4, .m4v, .mpg, .mov, .wmv, .avi, .ogv, .3gp, .3g2

Tip: Although you can upload videos to WordPress, we always recommend uploading your videos to a video hosting site instead. This helps protect your website’s speed and performance.

When you get this error, the first thing we recommend is checking the file extension to make sure it is correct. Sometimes, you may accidentally delete a file name extension or mistype it while editing or saving a file on your computer.

On Windows 10, you can easily check file extensions. Simply open the folder that contains your file and click on the ‘View’ link at the top of the window. From here, you need to check the ‘File name extensions’ box.

After checking that box, you will now see the extension after file names.

Note: This will show the extension for all files on your computer, not just the ones in this folder.

Mac users can view file extensions by opening the Finder app and going to Finer » Preferences from the top menu.

This will bring up the Preferences popup where you need to click on the ‘Advanced’ tab and make sure that the box next to ‘Show all filename extensions’ option is checked.

Now that you can view the file name extensions, locate the file you were trying to upload and make sure it has the correct extension.

If the extension is incorrect, then you can simply right-click and select the ‘Rename’ option to change the file name and add the correct extension.

Allow New File Types in WordPress with the File Upload Types Plugin

If you are uploading a file type that is not supported by WordPress, then you can still upload it by adding it as a supported file type.

The File Upload Types plugin is the easiest way to fix the “Sorry, this file type is not permitted for security reasons” error. This was co-created by WPBeginner’s founder, Syed Balkhi.

First, you need to install and activate the File Upload Types plugin. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, go to the Settings » File Upload Types page in your WordPress admin area. Then, simply type your file type into the search box.

Next, check the box next to the file type(s) that you want to enable and click on the ‘Save Settings’ button at the bottom of the screen to store your changes.

Now, go ahead and return to the media library. You will be able to add your file(s) without getting an error message.

Keeping Your WordPress Site Secure When Permitting Additional File Types

The reason WordPress blocks many file types is to help keep your WordPress website secure.

When you enable additional file types, we strongly advise that you take some security measures to protect your site.

You should:

• Restrict non-registered users, so they can only upload the file types that they need to upload. The best way to do this is with a file upload form.
• Use a WordPress security plugin to monitor your site for vulnerabilities.
• Regularly scan your WordPress site for potentially malicious code.
• Consider limiting the size of uploaded files to stop users from uploading large files that may contain malware.
• Add user activity logging, so you have records of which user uploaded which file

We hope this article helped you learn how to fix the “Sorry, this file type is not permitted for security reasons” error in WordPress. You may also want to see our expert pick of the must-have WordPress plugins for your website, and bookmark our ultimate guide on how to fix most common WordPress errors.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

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December 21, 2020 at 06:46PM

How to Create Chat Rooms in WordPress for Your Users

Recently one of our readers asked if it was possible to create chat rooms on your WordPress site for your users?

A chat room hosted on your site will allows your visitors to chat with each other without needing to install a third-party chat client like Slack or Discord.

In this article, we’ll show you how to create a chat room in WordPress.

Why Add a Chat Room in WordPress?

If you run a small membership website or an online forum, then you may want to add instant messaging chat room for your users.

Normally, you can use third-party services like Slack, WhatsApp, Facebook groups, Discord, etc. But the downside is that all the communication will happen outside your website.

An on-site chat room can make your small community come alive and allow users to talk to each other without leaving your website.

Note: These chat rooms are for small community of users. If you are looking for live chat for customer support, then check out our list of best live chat support software.

That being said, let’s take a look at how to easily add a chat room to your WordPress site.

Adding Chat Rooms in WordPress

First, you’ll need to install and activate the Simple Ajax Chat plugin. For more details, see our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Once you’ve activated the plugin, simply go to the Settings » Simple Ajax Chat page to set up your chat room.

You need to go to the Plugin Settings section and change the name of your chat under ‘General Settings.’ We called it ‘My Chat Room’ for this example.

Under general settings, there are a bunch of options that you can use to customize your chat room.

For instance, you can require users to be logged in to use the chat feature. Or they can use their logged-in username as their chat name, and more.

You can also customize the appearance of your chat room and even manage banned words and phrases if you want to.

How to Display Your Chat Room in WordPress

The next step is to create the page where you want your chat room to live. On the settings page, scroll down to the “Shortcode & Template Tag” area and click to open it.

You’ll see the shortcode that you need to copy:

Next, go to Pages » Add New in your WordPress admin, and name your page.

After that, you can add the shortcode ‘[sac_happens]’ to display your chat room.

To add the shortcode, first you’ll need to click the circle with the ‘+’ sign in the upper left corner of the WordPress block editor. Next, type in ‘short’, and you’ll see the shortcode option.

Click the shortcode button to add it to your page and then paste the shortcode ‘[sac_happens]’ into that area.

Now you can click the Publish button to save your changes. After that, go ahed and check out your page to see your live chat room in action. This is how it looked on our test site.

We hope this article helped you learn how to create chat rooms using WordPress for users. You might also want to see our guide on the best chatbot software, and how to add web push notifications in WordPress to connect with your visitors after they leave your site.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

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December 19, 2020 at 07:00PM

6 Best Website Maintenance Services for WordPress

Are you looking for the best website maintenance services for your WordPress website?

Website maintenance services manage your WordPress site for you. This includes taking care of backups, updates, security, and website edits.

In this article, we’re going to share some of the best website maintenance services that you can use for your WordPress site.

Why Use a WordPress Website Maintenance Service?

If you run a self-hosted WordPress.org website, then you are responsible for installing WordPress core updates, plugin and theme updates, and keeping website backups.

Unless you are using a managed WordPress hosting company like WP Engine, you’ll be taking care of all these tasks by yourself.

You may feel that these tasks are taking too much of your time, which you would rather spend on growing your business.

This is where website maintenance services come in. A good website maintenance service should provide the following services:

Backups

The service should keep regular WordPress backups of your site, often more than once a day. This means that if something does go wrong, your site can be restored instantly.

Expert WordPress Support

As a beginner, you may need help now and then to fix common WordPress errors.

Having expert WordPress support from your website maintenance service means you won’t need to spend your time working through WordPress tutorials.

It’s important to note that in some cases, support is charged for as an additional service. It’s not always part of the basic website maintenance package.

Security

Your website maintenance service will keep your site safe and secure by running automated scans. Most companies can help you quickly deal with any problems like malware or hacking attempts.

Note: Many website maintenance services may charge extra for malware removal service. We recommend using Sucuri, it is the best WordPress firewall plugin and they offer free malware removal service with all their paid plans.

Timely WordPress Updates

Your website maintenance service will save you time by keeping everything up to date for you. If you do choose to update your plugins yourself, make sure you follow our step by step instructions on how to properly update WordPress plugins.

With all this in mind, here are our top picks for the best WordPress website maintenance services:

1. WP Buffs

WP Buffs is a well-known WordPress website maintenance service that provides cloud backups, emergency support, weekly website updates, speed optimization, unlimited website edits, and more.

They have plans suitable for average website owner as well as perform plan for eCommerce stores, membership sites, and more complex websites.

Pros

• You’ll get a nicely formatted .pdf report each week from WP Buffs to let you know exactly what they’ve been doing on your site. For instance, you’ll see a list of which plugins have been updated and when.
• They offer maintenance for complex online stores (eCommerce), though you’ll need their highest-plan for this.
• WP Buffs monitors your site constantly throughout the day. If your site goes down, they’ll act within 60 seconds to start fixing it.
• Support is available 24/7, as WP Buffs has team members all over the world.
• WP Buffs offers a white-label service. This useful if you host WordPress websites for clients. You can use WP Buff’s services for your clients as if WP Buffs was part of your own team.

Cons

• Malware removal is only included if you’re on the most expensive of their three plans.
• WP Buffs only updates plugins weekly, not daily. This does mean that they have time to test new plugin updates, though.

Pricing

Their lowest plan starts at $67/month. You’ll need to pay $197/month if you want priority support, malware removal, speed optimization, plus some other extras. There is a discount if you choose to pay annually.

2. Codeable

Codeable is a platform where you can hire WordPress experts. If you want a bespoke maintenance package, this could be a great way to find someone who can help.

For instance, you might want a developer to help you to make your site fast and secure.

Unlike other platforms like Upwork, Codeable actually has a strong vetting process which ensures that you only work with the most experienced WordPress developers.

Pros

• Codeable carefully vets the developers they work with. This ensures that you’ll be working with someone who has plenty of experience.
• You can specify exactly what you want. Most dedicated website maintenance services require you to pick from specific plans.
• You could use Codeable for one-off support. For instance, you may need someone to help you set up a WordPress membership website. After that, you’ll be comfortable taking care of the site on your own.
• Codeable has a support team that can help you through the process of using their platform to find and work with a developer. Note that they don’t provide actual WordPress support themselves.

Cons

• You’ll need to come up with a clear idea of what you require. You’ll likely need to answer questions from developers about your project, too. If you’re new to WordPress, it can be tough to know exactly what help you need.
• You won’t know how much your project will cost until you start receiving estimates, usually around a day after posting it.
• You’ll need to pay an additional 17.5% (based on the estimated cost of your project) to Codeable. This fee isn’t refundable, even if the developer doesn’t complete your project in a satisfactory way.

Pricing

Codeable will give you a single estimate rather than a list of bids. This is to avoid a “race to the bottom” where developers try to undercut one another and you end up with someone cheap but not necessarily skilled.

Their pricing is based on a $70 – $120 hourly rate, plus a 17.5% fixed service fee that goes to Codeable.

3. GoWP

GoWP is targeted at agencies and freelancers who provide WordPress services for their clients. They offer white label support. This means that you can use your own branding but with their team doing the maintenance work.

Pros

• The basic maintenance plan is $29/month per site. This includes backups and updates, as you’d expect, but also malware cleanup.
• The “maintenance + unlimited content edits” plan is $79/month. This covers 24/7 support plus all sorts of small tasks (up to 30 minutes each) like tweaking CSS, installing new plugins, and more.
• Their “Visual Validator” software checks your site after installing plugins, by taking snapshots of up to 20 pages of your site to compare with previous versions. If anything’s changed, the GoWP team will get an alert so they can check your site.
• You can use GoWP for your own site as well as for clients’ sites.
• The team is available around the clock and aims to get all tasks done within 8 hours at most.

Cons

• You’ll need to pay separately if you want tasks that take more than 30 minutes.
• GoWP is aimed at WordPress freelancers and agencies. You may find there’s a bit of a learning curve if you’re just an individual wanting to use it on one site.

Pricing

GoWP costs $29/month for the basic maintenance plan or $79/month for maintenance plus unlimited edits to content, CSS, and so on.

If you have complex tasks that will take more than 30 minutes each, you’ll need to pay for one-off tasks to cover these.

They also offer the ability for you to get a dedicated developer for your team at $1799 per month.

4. Maintainn

Maintainn offers a range of different plans for keeping your site secure and up to date. All plans include the weekly plugin, theme, and WordPress updates. There’s also 24/7 security monitoring, so you’ll get an alert if your site is hacked.

At the “Professional” or higher price plan levels, Maintainn provides services like uptime monitoring and eCommerce support.

Pros

• The “Professional” plan and above include free malware cleaning after a hack.
• Maintainn’s plans come in cheaper than some of the other services we’ve looked at.
• There’s live chat support available for all plans, as well as email support.
• You’ll get a weekly report that lets you know what Maintainn’s been doing on your site.
• Maintainn also has options for design and development services and for website hosting. If you want one company to take care of everything website-related for you, this could work well.

Cons

• Live chat is only available Monday to Friday, from 9am to 8pm EST. This might be frustrating if you normally work on your site on the weekends.
• You’ll need the “Professional” plan or higher if you want malware removal to be included for free.

Pricing

Maintainn’s Standard plan is $59/month. If you’ve got an eCommerce site, you’ll need to opt for at least their “Professional” plan, at $179/month.

Their most expensive regular plan is Enterprise, at $299/month. This adds in things like version control and a staging site. This makes it ideal for larger websites that might have several different people working on them.

5. Valet

Valet offers maintenances plans that include everything you’d expect. Backups, WordPress core updates, plugin updates, and so on are all covered. They test all updates on a staging site before making them live on your site.

Pros

• The maintenance plan is clearly and simply priced, at $69/month. There aren’t several plans to choose from, and you just pay month by month.
• You can add extra WordPress support if you want it. This is paid by the hour and can cover any WordPress jobs at all.
• The maintenance plan covers some things that other providers charge quite a bit more for. For instance, it offers uptime monitoring and support for eCommerce sites.
• You can add on extra WordPress support if you want it. This is paid by the hour and can cover any WordPress jobs at all.

Cons

• There’s not much information on the site before signing up. There are no FAQs, for instance. This means it’s not clear how some things work. The maintenance plan promises “regular reporting” but it isn’t clear what this really means.
• The pricing could be more transparent. When you’re offered the option of “Consultation & Support Hours” for a pre-purchase discount, it’s not clear how much these will cost.
• The maintenance plan doesn’t provide any support. If you’ve got questions, you’ll need to pay an hourly fee.

Pricing

The maintenance plan itself is $69/month. You can purchase developers’ time by the hour to do whatever you want with your WordPress site, though this isn’t cheap at $175/hour or $150/hour if you pre-pay.

6. WP Maintainer

WP Maintainer offers a straightforward maintenance plan for WordPress sites. There’s also the option to pay for extra support and development time if you want it.

Pros

• WP Maintainer offers a free scan of your website. You’ll need to enter your email address to receive this, but there’s no obligation to buy anything.
• There’s a single maintenance plan priced at $99/month. You don’t need to decide between different plans.
• The maintenance plan includes site cleanup if your site does get infected by malware.
• You can choose to add developer support for $99/hour. This can be used for most things you’d want to do with your website, though you can’t use it for a full site redesign.
• Updates take place frequently, soon after new versions of plugins, themes, or WordPress itself are released.
• If you want a new web host, WP Maintainer can move you to one of their approved hosts for free when you’re getting set up with their maintenance plan.

Cons

• Support isn’t included. If you have questions or want help with things like installing a new plugin or fixing a problem on your site, you’ll need to pay for this.
• There’s no indication on the site about whether you’ll be able to get your money back if you’re not happy.

Pricing

The maintenance plan costs $99/month. You can purchase support and maintenance time at a rate of $99/hour.

We hope this article helped you find the best website maintenance services for your WordPress site. You may also want to take a look at our guide on important WordPress maintenance tasks to perform regularly, and our comparison of the best business phone services for remote teams.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

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December 18, 2020 at 06:00PM