Over time, it is possible that the Hosting Account has such a growth of data that it needs to be upgraded to a higher plan, but there is also the alternative of freeing up space on the disk and thus avoiding extra costs.

Some incorrect configurations, compressed files, old hosted emails, backups, error files, among other factors, can take up important space that will fill up your disk space and affect the performance of your website in the long run.

The recommendation is that before purchasing a hosting plan with greater storage capacity, you perform an analysis of the current information stored on disk. This way you can make sure if the need for scaling is real or can be avoided.

Below, you will find 5 highly efficient tips, which will help you free up disk space on your hosting account.

1.- Check the Disk Space

The first step to perform is to check the disk space. But, it is important that you manage to observe all the files, including the hidden ones.

So the first thing you need to do is activate the option that allows you to show all hidden files. With this you will be able to have a real picture of what elements occupy space on your disk.

To do this, you can enter your hosting account and from cPanel, locate the File Manager and activate the check box Show hidden files (dotfiles) or Show hidden files (dotfiles).

Now that you can see the hidden files, exit File Manager and locate the Files section in cPanel. Then choose the Disk usage or Disk Space usage option, depending on the version used.

From this information, you can see if you have unused installations taking up space, residual files, or manuals in PDF form, what images need to be optimized and if both the cache and tmp folder have files to empty them.

2.- Eliminate Unnecessary Emails

Sometimes the space is optimized to the maximum, but there is a lot of incoming and outgoing mail flow, the attachments have a very significant weight or there is spam.

To do an effective cleaning, go to the Email section of your cPanel and choose the option Email Disk Usage or Usage of the disk by Correos.

Next, a drop-down menu will appear in which you must select the email account you want to clean and it will show you a panel with several folders such as: Inbox, Spam, Trash, Trash.

Each of them has an option on the right side that says Manage, just below Actions. By clicking on the down arrow, options will be displayed, below Message to delete or Messages to delete.

With this option you can sort the emails by various criteria such as time, size or views, among others. Then press a click on the Delete permanently or Erase permanently button.

You can also create queries about your emails with personalized criteria, through the Custom query option.

3.- Delete Old Backup Copies

Backup copies allow you to restore the service of your website in a short time, in the event of a failure or attack that prevents its proper functioning. But, multiple versions of these copies, duplicate storage of large files or very large databases, will take up valuable disk space on your hosting account.

First of all, create backups of your website and databases. Then, download and store them on an external hard drive or on your computer's hard drive and upload them only when necessary.

Next, delete all the old backups and, if you want to keep any, store them in the previously recommended storages.

In addition to this, some software, such as Softaculous, automatically create backups that you should review. So head over to File Manager in your cPanel and look for the /softaculous_backups/ folder to see how many currently exist.

To delete those backups, open Softaculous and select the Backups or Backups and Restores option, this is the icon to the right of the key.

It is also possible to modify the frequency of creation of these backups, by selecting the “All installations” option in the top menu, which is shown with the icon of a file box.

This will show you all the scripts that make up these backups with a series of options on the right hand side. If you select the pencil option of each one, you will find the parameters established for the formation of the respective backups.

Determine which of these you are willing to move away from the frequency of performing these backups.

Now, check the root directory of your website and identify how many backups are stored there.

You can also look in the plugin or add-on folders to find the backups made by these tools or consult the respective documentation in search of more precise information.

4.- Delete Error Files

Every time a certain error occurs in the execution of the PHP code, a record is fed that can occupy large disk extensions if it is not attended to in a timely manner.

Open the error_log file and see if what it contains are just warnings and notices that do not compromise the performance of your website. If so, locate the Select PHP version option in your cPanel and right in the display_errors attribute change the value from On to Off so that it does not show more.

If you notice that “yes” there are error logs and this grows disproportionately, you can check with the support team to determine if there is something wrong with the server that is causing the problem.

And, in case the problem is with a plugin or theme, you can also check with the support of the tool or its community to find possible solutions.

5.- Get rid of Residues of Old Domains

Finally, you can check if you have files or folders on your disk that were used by domains that have been transferred to other disks or that are no longer there.

CMS also create databases for the administration and development of websites that need to be removed manually after an uninstall.

Go to the Databases section in your cPanel and select the MySQL Databases option. It then deletes the databases for those CMSs that are no longer in production.

If you don't know what they are, you can locate yourself by the prepositions that will tell you which CMS they belong to or request support from their manufacturer or developer.

Conclusion

Proper management of the disk space of your hosting account will be decisive for the good performance of your website and so that you can identify when you have to upgrade to a hosting plan with greater capacities.

The recommendation is that before scaling to a larger and more expensive hosting service, you do the following:

1. Check disk space by checking for unnecessary files, unoptimized images, and folders that need to be emptied.
2. Eliminate very old emails, with large attachments and all kinds of junk that takes up disk space.
3. Delete those backups with duplicates and reduce the frequency of automatic generation of these.
4. It suppresses files of corrected errors, turns off the emission of these if what they produce are warnings or notices and seeks to help if the errors are very frequent.
5. Get rid of non-operational domain remnants, such as CMS files or databases that are no longer in operation.

If after this, you still need to have a superior space, you can contact us through any of our service channels and we will be happy to advise you on the most convenient plan according to your needs.

Thanks for your time ;-)