How to Fix the WordPress Database Error Disk Full

How to fix the WordPress Database Error Disk Full is a common question generally asked by many WordPress users who get stuck in this loop.
This kind of error typically happens when your hosting storage runs out, which means WordPress can no longer save or access any of the essential data, such as your recently added posts or any plugin you installed.
If this error sticks, you need to resolve it as soon as possible since your site will slow down which will cause downtime.
Here in this blog, you will walk from the very beginning why this error happens, up to every possible step that you can follow to easily resolve the issue.
What is the WordPress Database Error Disk Full Error?
The WordPress Database Error usually occurs in case your site’s server finishes up the available space.
In your WordPress site, this storage stores your posts, pages, comments, user profiles, and even the site settings. To make your WordPress site go live easily in simple steps, learn how to publish a WordPress site.
It also stores the plugins and the themes that you frequently install. As long as the space is available, you keep adding all these kinds of stuff to your site, but as soon as the space is gone, this error message pops up, eventually preventing your site from functioning smoothly.
This error can also restrict you from publishing any new content, stop the users from logging in, and even cause images or media to not show up on your site.
How to Fix the WordPress Database Error Disk Full
There might be several reasons why the WordPress Database Disk Full error arises, among which having plenty of large media files, unused plugins, old backups, or even plenty of revisions of posts are some of the major ones.
Here are a few simple steps that you can follow to get rid of the issue.
1. Upgrade Your Hosting Plan
The hosting plan that you took when you just started your site might no longer be sufficient in the future as your site starts to grow. So, upgrading to a much larger hosting plan might help resolve the issue in case the present plan is out of storage.
- Simply first reach out to your hosting provider and explain your need for more space and storage for your WordPress site.
- Select a plan that will offer you more space and resources for your online site.
- Also, ensure that the new plan is capable of handling the future growth of your site.
2. Clean Up Your WordPress Database
As your site grows, the database of your WordPress site gradually fills up with some unnecessary data, such as old post drafts, spam comments, and trashed posts.
These are somehow taking up a lot of storage, not letting you put out some of your current content on your site. So, cleaning up the WordPress database is as important as other steps.
Also, always ensure that you back up your database before making any below changes.
Clean Up using WP-Optimize Plugin
- By using the plugin, you first need to install the plugin and also activate it in your WordPress dashboard.
- Then simply navigate to the WP-Optimize option followed by Database.
- Uncheck the content that you do not want to clean up. Click on the Run all selected optimizations to delete your old drafts, spam, and trash.
Clean Up Manually
You can also clean up the database storage manually if you are comfortable by simply navigating to the phpMyAdmin, followed by the Manage option inside your hosting control panel.
3. Remove Unused Plugins and Themes
The plugins and the theme that you are no longer using are unnecessarily consuming a lot of storage in your WordPress database. So, removing those plugins and themes might help you fix the issue along with a faster performance of your site.
- Simply just navigate to the Plugins section inside your WordPress dashboard.
- Then, from the Installed Plugins option, delete any plugin that you are no longer using for your site.
- Then, for the themes, navigate to Appearance, followed by clicking on the Themes option.
- Remove the themes that are not at present active, and you do not want to use them.
Also, make sure that you select those plugins to install for your WordPress site that combine multiple features such as security and backups. In this way, you do not need to install more plugins and hence, the storage space in your WordPress database is saved.
4. Delete Large Log Files
The Log files might pile up on your site over time and consume a lot of the available storage. And, having these log files in your site’s dashboard is of no use since you would not need them in the future for your site once they have been used.
So, it is better to delete these log files from your WordPress dashboard to save more space.
- First, you need to install the plugin for file manager.
- Simply first access your hosting control panel or the cPanel and navigate to the File Manager.
- Then, look for the Logs folder and review the files available there.
- You can then delete any old or unnecessary log files that you are no longer willing to use for your site to free up some space.
5. Clear Out Unnecessary Backups
The backups that you have once done might not be necessary for now and taking up the space in your database. Clearing up these old backups will help free up some space inside your WordPress database.
- First, log into your hosting control panel in your WordPress and access phpMyAdmin.
- Then, look for the database of your website and open it.
- Then, simply delete any unnecessary files, such as old backups or logs.
You also need to keep in mind that you always first back up your WordPress database before performing any changes.
6. Optimize Your Media Files
The media files, especially the larger ones, can fill up your entire storage very quickly. So, optimizing these media files, such as the images and the videos, can help you reduce their size without even losing their quality.
- To optimize your media files, you can use any image compression plugin that will reduce the file sizes of images before you upload them to your WordPress site.
- You can also consider using file formats that are smaller in size such as the PNG or the JPEG formats, and further compress them to save some space in your site’s database.
7. Contact Your Hosting Support
If, even after trying all the above steps, the error still pops up on your screen, you might need to contact your hosting support team.
They will better understand the issue and help you troubleshoot the problem. They can also specify some other methods or solutions that will help you get out of the issue and are specific to your hosting setup.
Conclusion
To sum it up, the WordPress Database Error Disk Full generally occurs when the available storage inside your WordPress site’s database starts to fill up, causing your site to be unable to save or access any important data.
This also makes your site perform slower. However, you can try a few of the simple steps to get rid of the issue.
Upgrading your hosting plan if the current plan’s storage is out of space, cleaning up your WordPress database by removing old drafts, spam comments, and trashed items, removing any unnecessary plugins and themes, or log files and old backups that you are no longer using, and also by optimizing your media files, are some of the few steps that you can easily follow along.
If none of the steps promises to resolve the problem, you can contact your hosting support team for more help.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What causes the WordPress Database Error Disk Full?
The WordPress Database Error Disk Full usually occurs when your website runs out of space on its server. As your site starts to grow, it stores more data, such as posts, pages, media files, plugins, themes, backups, and revisions.
How to fix the WordPress Database Error Disk Full?
To fix the WordPress Disk Full error, you can try upgrading your hosting plan, deleting unused plugins or themes, removing log files and backups, and optimizing your media files to compress them.
Can upgrading the hosting plan fix the issue?
Yes, upgrading the hosting plan might help you resolve the issue. You can contact your hosting provider about switching to a plan with more storage and resources so your site can keep growing without reaching storage limits.
How to clean up the WordPress database?
You can clean up your database using a plugin such as WP-Optimize to delete old drafts, spam comments, and trash items. You can also manually clean it up through phpMyAdmin in your hosting control panel.
What to do if the issue persists after following all the steps?
If the error of WordPress Database Error Disk Full keeps occurring, even after upgrading your hosting or cleaning up your database, you need to contact your hosting provider’s support team for more help. They will also help you figure out what’s going wrong and offer more solutions or methods based on your specific hosting setup.
Sagnika Goswami
Hi, I’m Sagnika Goswami. I am a tech enthusiast with a knack for content writing. Read my blogs for your daily insights.
Leave a Reply