{"id":479,"date":"2025-12-12T15:40:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-12T15:40:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cloudabove.com\/kb\/analyzing-site-disk-storage-usage-on-scout\/"},"modified":"2026-01-15T13:47:50","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T13:47:50","slug":"analyzing-site-disk-storage-usage-on-scout","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cloudabove.com\/help\/analyzing-site-disk-storage-usage-on-scout\/","title":{"rendered":"Analyzing Site Disk\/Storage Usage on Scout"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Running out of storage? Need to find what&#8217;s eating up your disk space? SSH and the <code>ncdu<\/code> command make it easy to see exactly which files and folders are the culprits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What You&#8217;ll Need<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>SSH access to your site<\/strong> \u2014 You&#8217;ll connect via terminal or SSH client.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Terminal or SSH software:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Mac\/Linux<\/strong> \u2014 Use the built-in Terminal app<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Windows<\/strong> \u2014 Download free SSH software like PuTTY<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Step 1: Connect via SSH<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Open your Terminal or SSH app and enter your SSH connection details. You can find these in the <strong>Files<\/strong> section of Scout (we have a separate guide on connecting to SSH if you need help).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Enter your password when prompted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"608\" height=\"118\" src=\"https:\/\/kb.cloudabove.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2025\/12\/image-48.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-482\" srcset=\"https:\/\/kb.cloudabove.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2025\/12\/image-48.png 608w, https:\/\/kb.cloudabove.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2025\/12\/image-48-300x58.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 608px) 100vw, 608px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Step 2: Run NCDU<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Once you&#8217;re logged in, run this command:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<pre class=\"wp-block-code\"><code>ncdu<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>NCDU<\/strong> is a command-line tool that scans your files and folders, then displays them by size\u2014largest first. It shows sizes in megabytes or gigabytes so you can quickly spot what&#8217;s taking up space.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"757\" height=\"269\" src=\"https:\/\/kb.cloudabove.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2025\/12\/image-49.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-481\" srcset=\"https:\/\/kb.cloudabove.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2025\/12\/image-49.png 757w, https:\/\/kb.cloudabove.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2025\/12\/image-49-300x107.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 757px) 100vw, 757px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Step 3: Navigate and Explore<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Use your <strong>arrow keys<\/strong> to move around. Press <strong>Enter<\/strong> to go into a folder and see what&#8217;s inside.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For example, go into your <code>site<\/code> folder, then into <code>public_html<\/code> to see your website files. This is where you&#8217;ll often spot unexpected folders or old backups taking up space.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"771\" height=\"575\" src=\"https:\/\/kb.cloudabove.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2025\/12\/image-50.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-480\" srcset=\"https:\/\/kb.cloudabove.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2025\/12\/image-50.png 771w, https:\/\/kb.cloudabove.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2025\/12\/image-50-300x224.png 300w, https:\/\/kb.cloudabove.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2025\/12\/image-50-768x573.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 771px) 100vw, 771px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Delete Unwanted Files<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Found something you don&#8217;t need? Select it and press <strong>D<\/strong> to delete.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A confirmation prompt will appear &#8211; confirm by pressing <strong>Y<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"banner-warning\">\u26a0\ufe0f <strong>Important:<\/strong> Deletion via SSH is permanent. There&#8217;s no recycle bin or undo. However, Scout maintains regular automated backups, so you can recover files from a backup if needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Common Culprits<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Keep an eye out for:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Old backup folders<\/strong> &#8211; Often much larger than they need to be<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Cache directories<\/strong> &#8211; Build up over time and can be safely cleaned<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Temporary files<\/strong> &#8211; Usually safe to remove<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Old plugin\/theme folders<\/strong> &#8211; If you&#8217;ve deactivated them, they can go<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Pro tip:<\/strong> Regular storage audits prevent emergency cleanup later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Running out of storage? Need to find what&#8217;s eating up your disk space? SSH and the ncdu command make it easy to see exactly which files and folders are the culprits. What You&#8217;ll Need SSH access to your site \u2014 You&#8217;ll connect via terminal or SSH client. Terminal or SSH&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-479","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-our-control-panel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cloudabove.com\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cloudabove.com\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cloudabove.com\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cloudabove.com\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cloudabove.com\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=479"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/cloudabove.com\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":501,"href":"https:\/\/cloudabove.com\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479\/revisions\/501"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cloudabove.com\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cloudabove.com\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cloudabove.com\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}