HTTP Error 413 request entity too large - failure when attaching files

Platform Notice: Data Center Only - This article only applies to Atlassian products on the Data Center platform.

Note that this KB was created for the Data Center version of the product. Data Center KBs for non-Data-Center-specific features may also work for Server versions of the product, however they have not been tested. Support for Server* products ended on February 15th 2024. If you are running a Server product, you can visit the Atlassian Server end of support announcement to review your migration options.

*Except Fisheye and Crucible

Symptoms

Collecting a HAR file as per: Generating HAR files and analyzing web requests when debugging a Web UI problem indicates a 413 error in the Response Code.

The following appears in the atlassian-jira.log,

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 2014-12-11 12:37:20,734 http-bio-8080-exec-237 WARN userx 757x56318x1 1g0pgj0 10.181.71.16,10.164.112.5,10.164.114.46 /secure/AttachFile!default.jspa [webwork.view.taglib.IteratorTag] Value is null! Returning an empty set.2014-12-11 12:37:21,467 http-bio-8080-exec-239 ERROR userx 757x56322x1 1g0pgj0 10.181.71.16,10.164.112.5,10.164.114.46 /secure/EditAction!default.jspa [jira.web.dispatcher.JiraWebworkActionDispatcher] Exception thrown from action 'EditAction!default', returning 404 2014-12-11 12:38:15,590 http-bio-8080-exec-232 WARN userx 758x56504x1 1g0pgj0 10.181.71.16,10.164.112.5,10.164.114.46 /secure/AttachFile!default.jspa [webwork.view.taglib.IteratorTag] Value is null! Returning an empty set.2014-12-11 12:41:13,835 http-bio-8080-exec-242 WARN userx 761x57416x1 1g0pgj0 10.181.71.16,10.164.112.5,10.164.114.46 /secure/AttachFile!default.jspa [webwork.view.taglib.IteratorTag] Value is null! Returning an empty set

Atlassian applications allow the use of reverse-proxies with our products; however, Atlassian Support does not provide assistance for configuring them. Consequently, Atlassiancannot guarantee providing any support for them.

If assistance with configuration is required, please raise a question on Atlassian Community.

Cause

A 413 error indicates that the server is not willing to handle a large request header according to W3C - RFC 2616 Status Code definitions:

The server is refusing to process a request because the request entity is larger than the server is willing or able to process. The server MAY close the connection to prevent the client from continuing the request.

Resolution

nginx example:

The client_max_body_size property, set in the nginx.conf file will control this limit. See the nginx documentation for more details.

Apache Httpd example:

Setting: LimitRequestBody or LimitRequestFieldSize in the httpd.conf file, or other appropriate Apache "conf" file.

If you are using SSL also check: SSLRenegBufferSize and increase sizes if noticing a 413 error is being reported.

See the Apache documentation on these properties for further information.

Updated on April 8, 2025

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