My hosting account is full: what can I delete?

A full hosting account is usually down to a few kinds of file that pile up unnoticed: old backups, log files, cache and temp folders, and dependency folders such as node_modules or vendor left in public folders. FTP by Zaweba's Disk view scans the server, and its web-server lens lists exactly those, biggest first, each with a plain reason, so you can see what is safe to clear.

Running out of space is more than an annoyance. Uploads fail, email on the same account can stop arriving and some sites fall over when they can't write a cache file. It is worth finding the cause rather than deleting at random.

Finding where the space has gone

Open Disk from the toolbar or the Site menu and let it scan. It runs over a few connections at once, and you can Pause, Resume or Stop. When it finishes you get a treemap, where each block's size is the space a file or folder takes, a sortable file list, and a list of the biggest 100 files.

Colour the treemap by file type and the culprits usually stand out: one great block of archives, or a carpet of tiny cache files that add up. Colour by age instead and you can see what hasn't changed in years.

Then switch the list to lens results. The lens puts security items first, then sorts by size, and says why each one is listed. Typical finds are backup archives, PHP error logs that have grown for years, cache and temp folders, database dumps and node_modules or vendor folders sitting in public folders.

What is usually safe to remove

Old backup archives are the classic one. Many site tools make a backup before an update and never tidy up. If you have a copy somewhere else, they can go. If you don't, download them first: Disk can download tagged files or whole folders.

Error logs can normally be removed once you have read them, though a huge, fast-growing log is a sign that something on the site is going wrong, and that is worth fixing too.

Cache and temp folders are made again by the software that uses them, but it is kinder to clear them from inside that software where it offers a button. Dependency folders in public folders deserve a closer look before deleting, because some sites really do run from them.

Deleting without regret

Tag what you want to clear. You can tag in the list or tree, or use Tag by to match by type, size or age. Then send the tagged files to the trash together. The confirmation can offer to download a backup first, which is worth accepting for anything you are not sure about.

Some paths are protected and are left out, including .htaccess, wp-config.php, .env, cgi-bin/, the web root and cPanel folders such as mail/, etc/, ssl/ and logs/. Moving or deleting those can break a site or hosting account, so FTP by Zaweba refuses unless you have changed a site option that allows it, which is not recommended.

The trash is on the server, so items in it still count against your space. Once the site has run happily for a few days, open the Trash window and use Delete ticked permanently on what you no longer need. You type the number of files to confirm, and it can download a backup first.

Keeping a record

Before a big clear out, export the list as shown to CSV from Disk. It is a simple record of what the server held, which helps if a client later asks where a file went. The operations log also lists what Disk has done, batch by batch, and renames, moves, trashing and permission changes can be undone as a batch.

A note on email and databases

Hosting space often includes mailboxes and databases, which live outside your website files. FTP by Zaweba sees the files the server shows over FTP or SFTP, and protects cPanel folders such as mail/ rather than touching them. If the scan accounts for far less than your hosting control panel says you are using, the rest is likely mail or databases, and your host's own tools are the place to tackle those.