diff --git a/app/uploadhandler.py b/app/uploadhandler.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..f3e02700
--- /dev/null
+++ b/app/uploadhandler.py
@@ -0,0 +1,60 @@
+import tempfile
+
+import errno
+from django.core.files.uploadedfile import UploadedFile
+from django.core.files.uploadhandler import FileUploadHandler
+
+from django.conf import settings
+
+"""
+Same as Django's TemporaryFileUploadHandler, but closes the file
+after the upload is completed as not to hog the number of open fd limits
+(see https://github.com/OpenDroneMap/WebODM/issues/233)
+"""
+class TemporaryFileUploadHandler(FileUploadHandler):
+    """
+    Upload handler that streams data into a temporary file.
+    """
+    def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
+        super(TemporaryFileUploadHandler, self).__init__(*args, **kwargs)
+
+    def new_file(self, *args, **kwargs):
+        """
+        Create the file object to append to as data is coming in.
+        """
+        super(TemporaryFileUploadHandler, self).new_file(*args, **kwargs)
+        self.file = ClosedTemporaryUploadedFile(self.file_name, self.content_type, 0, self.charset, self.content_type_extra)
+
+    def receive_data_chunk(self, raw_data, start):
+        self.file.write(raw_data)
+
+    def file_complete(self, file_size):
+        self.file.seek(0)
+        self.file.size = file_size
+        self.file.close() # Close the file as not to hog the number of open files descriptors
+        return self.file
+
+
+class ClosedTemporaryUploadedFile(UploadedFile):
+    """
+    A file uploaded to a temporary location (i.e. stream-to-disk).
+    """
+    def __init__(self, name, content_type, size, charset, content_type_extra=None):
+        file = tempfile.NamedTemporaryFile(suffix='.upload', dir=settings.FILE_UPLOAD_TEMP_DIR, delete=False)
+        super(ClosedTemporaryUploadedFile, self).__init__(file, name, content_type, size, charset, content_type_extra)
+
+    def temporary_file_path(self):
+        """
+        Returns the full path of this file.
+        """
+        return self.file.name
+
+    def close(self):
+        try:
+            return self.file.close()
+        except OSError as e:
+            if e.errno != errno.ENOENT:
+                # Means the file was moved or deleted before the tempfile
+                # could unlink it.  Still sets self.file.close_called and
+                # calls self.file.file.close() before the exception
+                raise
diff --git a/nginx/nginx.conf b/nginx/nginx.conf
index 23c4fac6..c23d817b 100644
--- a/nginx/nginx.conf
+++ b/nginx/nginx.conf
@@ -29,7 +29,7 @@ http {
 
   server {
     listen 8000 deferred;
-    client_max_body_size 20G;
+    client_max_body_size 0;
 
     # set the correct host(s) for your site
     server_name webodm.localhost;
diff --git a/nodeodm/api_client.py b/nodeodm/api_client.py
index afecb0f6..2c565b54 100644
--- a/nodeodm/api_client.py
+++ b/nodeodm/api_client.py
@@ -59,8 +59,16 @@ class ApiClient:
         :param options: options to be used for processing ([{'name': optionName, 'value': optionValue}, ...])
         :return: UUID or error
         """
+
+        # Equivalent as passing the open file descriptor, since requests
+        # eventually calls read(), but this way we make sure to close
+        # the file prior to reading the next, so we don't run into open file OS limits
+        def read_file(path):
+            with open(path, 'rb') as f:
+                return f.read()
+
         files = [('images',
-                  (os.path.basename(image), open(image, 'rb'), (mimetypes.guess_type(image)[0] or "image/jpg"))
+                  (os.path.basename(image), read_file(image), (mimetypes.guess_type(image)[0] or "image/jpg"))
                  ) for image in images]
         return requests.post(self.url("/task/new"),
                              files=files,
diff --git a/webodm/settings.py b/webodm/settings.py
index 97d594a8..4762ff32 100644
--- a/webodm/settings.py
+++ b/webodm/settings.py
@@ -172,6 +172,11 @@ STATICFILES_DIRS = [
 FILE_UPLOAD_MAX_MEMORY_SIZE = 4718592 # 4.5 MB
 DATA_UPLOAD_MAX_NUMBER_FIELDS = None
 
+FILE_UPLOAD_HANDLERS = [
+    'django.core.files.uploadhandler.MemoryFileUploadHandler',
+    'app.uploadhandler.TemporaryFileUploadHandler', # Ours doesn't keep file descriptors open by default
+]
+
 # Webpack
 WEBPACK_LOADER = {
     'DEFAULT': {