Disk quota exceeded: what stops working when the account is full

The short answer: every hosting account has a contracted disk space. When it fills up, the server stops writing: file uploads fail, WordPress cannot update, backups are not made and e-mail may stop arriving. The message has many forms (“Disk quota exceeded”, “No space left”, “insufficient space”), but the cause is the same.

What the site needs

What What to do
Failing uploads Images that will not upload, files that stop halfway, the File Manager refusing to save.
The site A WordPress update failing halfway, or a blank page when something cannot write (cache, sessions).
E-mail Messages that stop arriving, because the account has nowhere to put them: Mailbox full.
Backups The copies the account itself keeps take space, and a full account cannot make another.
The plan’s limits Space and the number of files (inodes) depend on the plan: The limits nobody advertises.

Getting started

1 See what takes the space: Disk Usage. It is usually one or two folders.
2 Look for the usual suspects: forgotten backups and .zip files in the site folder, the error log file that has grown, and old e-mail with large attachments.
3 Delete what you do not need and keep backups away from the account: A full cPanel backup.
4 In WordPress, shrink the images and clean the database: Image optimisation and Slimming the WordPress database.
5 Decide how many backups you keep: How many backups to keep. If the site has really grown, bring the plan up to match.
Do not blindly delete the site, e-mail or database folders. First see what each thing is. A configuration file deleted by mistake takes the site down. And before deleting a lot, make a copy away from the account.
If the error comes from a full disk on a server of your own (VPS), see No space left on the VPS disk. The errors in the log, as they appear in cPanel: Reading the Errors pages.

The account is full and you cannot free space? Open a ticket with the domain and what Disk Usage shows.

Open a support ticket

SEE ALSO

Disk Usage: finding what fills your account

Your mailbox is full: what to delete and how to stop it happening

Making a full cPanel backup and downloading it

How many backups to keep: daily, weekly and monthly copies without filling your space

Image optimisation and WebP

Slimming the WordPress database: revisions, spam and expired transients

RECOMMENDED PRODUCT

Web hosting with cPanel

Domain and SSL included, daily backups and the panel you already know. from 5.940,00 Kz/mo (3-year plan, with coupon)

See plans
  • 0 Users Found This Useful
Was this answer helpful?

Related Articles

How to access cPanel Control Panel? cPanel is the control panel where you manage everything in your hosting account - files, e-mail accounts, databases, bac...
How to create an e-mail account in cPanel? Creating a professional e-mail address on your own domain - such as info@yourdomain.ao - takes less than a minute in cPa...
How to change your cPanel password There are two ways to change your cPanel password, and the difference is simple: one needs the current one, the other do...
What can you do in cPanel? cPanel is the control panel included with your hosting plan. Everything about your site - files, e-mail, databases, doma...
Your cPanel access details To log in to cPanel you need three things: the address, your username and your password. This page explains what each on...
Uploading a whole site as a ZIP and extracting it in the File Manager The short answer: sending hundreds of files one by one is slow and full of failures. It is quicker to pack them into a s...