Adding arbitrary files to WordPress Media Library
I tried uploading a C# file to go along with a previous post, but kept getting an “IO Error” from WordPress. That wasn’t very helpful. Fortunately when I tried doing the same thing from Linux, I got a slightly more informative message telling me that the “File type does not meet security guidelines”. If you have a different idea than the developers of what constitutes a “security threat”, you can modify the list of file types that can be uploaded to WordPress. Find the wp-includes/functions.php file in your installation directory, and add your new MIME type(s) to the default list in get_allowed_mime_types function.
BTW, this only works if you have control over your WordPress install. If you’re using a hosted solution I guess you have to put up with it.
This is the code you’ll want to modify:
/**
* Retrieve list of allowed mime types and file extensions.
*
* @since 2.8.6
*
* @return array Array of mime types keyed by the file extension regex corresponding to those types.
*/
function get_allowed_mime_types() {
static $mimes = false;
if ( !$mimes ) {
// Accepted MIME types are set here as PCRE unless provided.
$mimes = apply_filters( 'upload_mimes', array(
'jpg|jpeg|jpe' => 'image/jpeg',
'gif' => 'image/gif',
'png' => 'image/png',
'bmp' => 'image/bmp',
'tif|tiff' => 'image/tiff',
'ico' => 'image/x-icon',
'asf|asx|wax|wmv|wmx' => 'video/asf',
'avi' => 'video/avi',
If you have a lot of file types and don’t want to bother adding them all, another option is to modify your wp-config.php file and add the following line:
define('ALLOW_UNFILTERED_UPLOADS', true);