Why does max_allowed_packet need to be increased?
Why does max_allowed_packet need to be increased?


When your server is processing big queries, then you have to increase the value of the max_allowed_packet (or to shorten your queries if possible ?).

Big queries makes me think of Views. One way to find those queries is, to enable the "Show the SQL query" under admin/structure/views/settings edit a view and see how big its query is. 

It is possible that if your content has been increased, your queries will have been increased as well (will return a large result row).

You can increase the max_allowed_packet, if needed, as MySQL says: 


  It is safe to increase the value of this variable because the extra memory is allocated only when needed.