Troubleshooting a cURL error 28: Operation timed out Error

Symptom

You may see a cURL error 28: Operation timed out error when you use the Automatic Updater utility in WHMCS. The Automatic Updater utility downloads, extracts, and copies the new files for updates, overwriting the existing files.

If this occurs, the process will not change the WHMCS installation and will continue to operate on the original version.

Cause

The cURL error 28: Operation timed out error indicates that the server was unable to download the .zip file containing the new files before it reached your server's connection timeout limit.

Several factors could cause this, including a slow network connection, network congestion, or a low connection timeout limit on the server.

The error message contains details about the point in the process at which the timeout occurred. For example:

...Operation timed out after 300000 milliseconds with 5917326 out of 84351336 bytes received...
  • 300000 milliseconds (5 minutes) is the maximum time that the server allocates for connections.
  • 5917326 bytes is the amount of data that the system downloaded within that time period.
  • 84351336 bytes is the total size of the new ZIP file.

Solution

If you see this error, try to update again later. Network congestion may be temporary.

If you continue to receive the error, work with your hosting provider or system administrator to troubleshoot and resolve the network connectivity issues between your server and the WHMCS mirror at https://releases.whmcs.com/.

After you make the necessary server or network changes, you can start the update process again by going to Utilities > Update WHMCS and clicking Update Now.

You can also choose to update WHMCS manually.

For more information, see Automatic Update Failed: Identifying the problem and Automatic Updater Troubleshooting.