How to Add Additional File Types to be Uploaded in WordPress

For better security, WordPress allows you to only upload the most commonly used file types. You can upload commonly used image formats, audio/video, and documents using the default media uploader. But if you wanted to upload a file type that is not allowed? In this article, we will show you how to add additional file types to be uploaded in WordPress.

File Types Allowed for Upload in WordPress

WordPress allows you to upload most common image files, audio/ video, PDF, Microsoft office and OpenOffice documents. WordPress codex has a full list of allowed file types and extensions.

Adding Exceptions for Additional File Types

Security is the main reason behind the limitation on file types that users can upload. However, this does not mean that users cannot change this. Using a tiny bit of code, you can add a new file type and extension to the WordPress.

For example, add this code in your theme’s functions.php file or a site-specific plugin to allow SVG file type to be uploaded:

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function my_myme_types($mime_types){
    $mime_types['svg'] = 'image/svg+xml'; //Adding svg extension
    return $mime_types;
}
add_filter('upload_mimes', 'my_myme_types', 1, 1);

Notice that the file extension goes as the key in $mime_types associated array and the mime type goes as its value.

In this example, svg file extension represents files with the mime type image/svg+xml. You can find out mime types of several common file extensions on this page.

You can also add multiple file types in one code snippet, like this:

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function my_myme_types($mime_types){
    $mime_types['svg'] = 'image/svg+xml'; //Adding svg extension
    $mime_types['psd'] = 'image/vnd.adobe.photoshop'; //Adding photoshop files
    return $mime_types;
}
add_filter('upload_mimes', 'my_myme_types', 1, 1);

We hope this article helped you learn how to allow additional file types to be uploaded in WordPress. You may also want to take a look at how to increase maximum file upload size in WordPress.

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