There is a limit to the size of a file that can be uploaded into your Moodle system. This limit changes for different Moodle sites. If you are using MoodleCloud, there are even more compelling reasons to use repositories. You will be able to create a master document with links, and such that lives outside your course.
There are three settings that limit the size of a file than can be uploaded into Moodle. Two of those settings are on your web server. The administrator for your web server will need to change them. If you are using a shared hosting service, you might not be able to change these settings. The third setting is in Moodle; it can be changed by the system administrator.
The size limit for uploaded files is the smallest of these three settings.
Your web server is probably using Apache to serve web pages. Apache can (but does not need to) have a limit set on the size of files that can be uploaded to the server through web pages. To determine whether Apache is limiting the size of uploaded files, you should ask your web server administrator.
Moodle uses the PHP programming language. The PHP language is in addition to Apache. PHP can also set a limit on the size of files that can be uploaded. In the php.ini file, look for the line that says upload_max_filesize =.
The Apache limits, and the PHP limit, are settings that you should discuss with your server administrator.
In Moodle, under Site administration | Courses | Course default settings, look for the setting labeled Maximum upload size. The maximum size available under that setting is taken from the php.ini file. You can set a lower limit than this but not a higher limit.
When you upload a file into Moodle, it will be placed in a file repository. By default, it will appear in the Server Files repository. If the Recent Files repository is enabled, the file might also appear there. If the file is too large, Moodle will not allow it to upload.
The most common way to get around Moodle's size limit on file uploads is by using a File system repository. When the site administrator creates a filesystem repository, the administrator first creates a folder, or directory, on the server where the Moodle data is stored. The administrator then creates a repository in Moodle that points to this directory. When you need to add a large file to a Moodle course, you go outside of Moodle and upload the file to this directory. Usually, you use an FTP client such as WinSCP or FileZilla to upload the file to the server. Now that the file is on the server, and in the repository's directory, you can go into Moodle and add the file to your course.
The following are the step-by-step instructions for each of these processes:
- Enabling the filesystem repository
- Creating the directory for the filesystem repository
- Uploading files to the filesystem repository
- Creating the filesystem repository in your course
- Selecting a file from a filesystem repository