Disk Usage Details

Within our cPanel control panel, we will look for the link named Disk Usage in the panel on the right, as shown in the screenshot below.

Of course, the table and its details will vary depending on the situation, but aside from the example numbers, the data shown is as follows:

• Files in the main directory: Loose files located in our home folder

• Files in hidden subdirectories: Files in folders that begin with a period. The most common ones in this case are .cpanel, .cagefs, .cl.selector, .softaculous, .htpasswd and they always represent system folders (our account will experience serious problems if we delete these files!). Note: if we find other folders that we have not mentioned, we should check that they do not contain malicious content.

• etc. folder: Contains email users and passwords. These files are essential for email to work via POP3, IMAP, and SMTP. If we delete these files, we may no longer see emails listed in cPanel or may stop receiving them.

• logs folder: Contains historical data about Apache (website) and FTP access. We can delete this data, although we should keep in mind that these logs cannot be recovered. If FPM is enabled for our account, we will also find PHP error log files here.

• public_ftp folder: This folder is no longer used; it is the location for FTP files uploaded by—or for—anonymous users. If the provider enables it, access to this folder is managed through Anonymous FTP, allowing anonymous users to download files we have previously uploaded without needing access to other areas of the website. We must configure the permissions explicitly, preferably for downloads only, and must not provide FTP users to strangers.

• public_html folder: This is where our website's files are located (note: if we have several websites, we may see specific folders for each of them).

• ssl folder: Contains our SSL certificates and private keys. We must never share these files with anyone. If we delete them, HTTPS access will stop working.

• tmp folder: Contains temporary files and is also where our account statistics are stored.

• MySQL: Summarizes the space occupied by all our databases

• Email files: Summarizes the space occupied by the mail folder. This includes all email accounts configured in cPanel, files that may have been placed there, accounts that we deleted without deleting their files (or that are no longer detected because files were deleted from the etc. folder), as well as files belonging to the main account (which appears at the end of the email list).

• Email accounts: Summarizes the space occupied by the email accounts that cPanel can find (it does not include trash folders, accounts that cPanel does not detect, or the main account).

• Other usage: This value will usually be zero and indicates that there are files outside our home folder that belong to our user and are also counted toward our account. In the example above, there was a backup file that we moved outside the home folder, which caused this value to increase.

Below this table, we will find another one with expandable folders; there we can view more details about where most of the disk space is being used (we should sort by "disk usage" for a clearer view).