Disk space full or nearly full: find what's using space and free it up

If you've had a disk quota warning from us, or your account is close to its limit, this guide shows you how to find what's taking up space and clear it.

Why it matters

When your account reaches its disk limit, things start to fail. New email can bounce back to the sender, your website may show errors or stop saving changes, and backups can fail. It's worth sorting out before you hit 100%.

1. See where the space is going

1. Log in to cPanel from your service page under Services → My Services (https://www.hooplahosting.co.nz/client/clientarea.php?action=services).
2. Open Disk Usage (type it in the cPanel search bar).
3. The table shows how much space each folder uses. Click a folder to see what's inside it. mail is your email, and public_html is usually your website.

2. Clear out email

Email is the most common cause of a full account, especially mailboxes that have been in use for years.

• In cPanel, open Email Disk Usage. Pick a mailbox and you can delete old messages in bulk, for example everything in Trash, Spam, or messages older than a year.
• Empty the Trash and Junk/Spam folders in webmail or your email app. Deleted messages still count until they're emptied.
• Large attachments in Sent items add up quickly. Save the ones you need, then delete them from the server.
• If you use POP3, set your email app to remove messages from the server after downloading them.

3. Clear out your website files

Use File Manager in cPanel to look for:

• Old backup files such as .zip, .tar.gz or .sql files you've downloaded or created and left on the server.
• Backup plugin folders in WordPress, for example wp-content/updraft, wp-content/ai1wm-backups or wp-content/backups. Download what you need and delete old copies. We already back up your account daily, so you don't need to keep many on the server.
• Old Softaculous backups in the softaculous_backups folder.
• Large error_log files. These can grow to several gigabytes if a site has a recurring error. Delete the file, then fix the error that's filling it.
• Cache folders, such as wp-content/cache. Clear these from your caching plugin's settings rather than deleting them by hand.
• Old or unused websites, test sites and staging copies you no longer need.

Keep a copy of anything you're unsure about before deleting it. You can download files from File Manager, or take a full backup first from Backup under Quick Shortcuts on your service page.

4. Still need more space?

If your account is genuinely using the space it needs, you can move to a plan with more storage from your service page under Services → My Services → your service → Upgrade/Downgrade. The change is applied straight away and you only pay the difference for the rest of your billing period.

If you're not sure what's using the space, or you'd like help cleaning it up, open a support ticket and we'll take a look.