How to increase Max Input Vars on GoDaddy shared hosting account

When setup some of the WordPress themes, you may see Maximum Input Vars notification. It asks you to increase Max Input Vars in your host to be able to use the theme. After searching for help, you may find several options. But in my case for a WordPress installation on GoDaddy shared hosting account, only one works.

What is max_input_vars

PHP obtains input variables from HTML forms (through GET and POST requests), as well as from any cookies enabled on a page. By default, the maximum number of input variables allowed for PHP scripts is set to 1000.

You are advised to change this amount by setting the max_input_vars directive in a php.ini file.

While working on a website hosted on GoDaddy shared hosting package, adding it to php.ini doesn’t work. What works for me is to add this in .user.ini file at www root folder, i.e., public_html. Yes, you read it correctly, it is “.user.ini“. The line is simple:

max_input_vars = 3000

This increase the value from 1000 to 3000.

One advice is to add following code in .HTACCESS file

php_value max_input_vars 1000
php_value suhosin.get.max_vars 1000
php_value suhosin.post.max_vars 1000
php_value suhosin.request.max_vars 1000

In my case, this brings the website down and throws a 500 error.