When cPanel warns that you are close to your disk quota, uploads fail, email stops arriving and some apps break. The Disk Usage tool shows exactly which folders, mailboxes and databases take the space so you can clean up the right things instead of guessing.
Before you start
- Check your current use in the Statistics panel on the cPanel home page: Disk Usage and File Usage (inodes).
- Before deleting anything you might need, download it or make a backup. MdmHost keeps daily JetBackup copies, but deleted files are only recoverable from the last backup.
Open Disk Usage
- Go to cPanel → Files → Disk Usage.
- The top table lists the main folders in your home directory with their size and a bar chart, plus separate rows for MySQL databases, Mailing lists and other system items.
- Scroll down to the directory tree. Click the folder icons to expand folders; sizes are shown for each. Use Sort directories by: Disk Usage to put the largest first.
Note: Disk Usage results are cached. If you just deleted files, it may take a little while before the numbers update.
Usual space eaters and how to clean them
| Location | What it is | What to do |
|---|---|---|
mail | All mailboxes | Use Email Disk Usage to delete old mail, Trash and Spam |
public_html/wp-content/uploads | WordPress media | Remove unused media, optimise images |
public_html/wp-content/ai1wm-backups, updraft, backups | Plugin backups stored on the account | Download and delete; daily JetBackup already protects you |
backup-*.tar.gz in home | Full cPanel backups you generated | Download, then delete |
public_html/wp-content/cache, lscache | Page caches | Purge from the cache plugin |
softaculous_backups | Softaculous app backups | Remove old ones in Softaculous backups |
logs, error_log files | Access archives and PHP error logs | Delete large error_log files after fixing the errors |
.trash | File Manager trash | File Manager → View Trash → Empty Trash |
| MySQL databases | Site data, logs, sessions | Clean plugin log tables, spam comments, transients |
Find hidden large files
File Manager hides dotfiles by default. Click Settings (top right) and tick Show Hidden Files (dotfiles). Or in Terminal:
find ~ -type f -size +100M -exec ls -lh {} \; 2>/dev/nullThis lists files over 100 MB anywhere in your account.
Disk space versus inodes
Your plan also limits the number of files (inodes). Thousands of tiny cache or session files can hit that limit while the space looks fine. See inodes and quota limits in cPanel.
Troubleshooting
- Usage does not drop after deleting in File Manager: files went to
.trash; empty it. - Numbers in Disk Usage and Statistics differ: Statistics includes everything owned by your user (databases, mail) and updates on a schedule.
- Still out of space: consider a larger plan; see web hosting plans, or contact support.