"Disk quota exceeded" means your account hit its allotted space — even if the server's disk has room. Uploads, emails and databases all fail until you free some. Here is how.
Quick answer
"Disk quota exceeded" means your account reached its own space limit, even if the server's disk still has room, so uploads, emails and database writes fail. Find the biggest folders with du -sh * in your home directory — usually email, old backups, logs or caches — and delete what you do not need, or move to a plan with a larger quota.
Quota vs full disk
This isn't the whole server being full — it's a per-account limit. The fix is to free space within your account or raise the quota (your host controls the limit).
Find what's using your quota
In your home directory, find the biggest folders — often it's email, backups, logs or caches:
du -sh ~/* ~/mail 2>/dev/null | sort -hThe usual space hogs
- Email — large mailboxes and old attachments (often the biggest).
- Backups — site/database backups you forgot to remove.
- Logs & caches — runaway error logs or a caching plugin.
- Old uploads — media you no longer use.
On shared hosting, your mailboxes usually count toward the same quota as your files. A full inbox can stop your website writing — clear old mail or archive it.
Quota = your account limit, not the disk. Clear email/backups/logs, or ask your host to raise the quota.
Cause: inode limit reached, not space
Some hosts also cap the number of files (inodes) separately from raw size. A site with hundreds of thousands of tiny cache files can hit the inode limit while still showing plenty of megabytes free. If the numbers don't add up, ask your host whether it's an inode limit and clear out large numbers of small files (caches, session files, mail).
Cause: hidden files and trash you can't see
Trashed email, hidden dot-directories, temp files and old core dumps all consume quota without showing up in a casual file listing. Include hidden files when you measure usage, and empty webmail/trash folders which often hold months of deleted mail.
How to prevent hitting your quota
- Set a mailbox size limit and auto-expire old trash/spam.
- Rotate and cap log files instead of letting them grow forever.
- Store or download backups off-server rather than keeping them all in your account.
- Periodically clear caching-plugin and session directories.
Related errors
If the whole server disk is genuinely full (not just your account), that's a different error — see no space left on device. To measure usage on a VPS you control, see checking CPU/RAM/disk usage. If a bulging mailbox is the cause, tidy up alongside our email deliverability guide.