Your 3GB covers files, databases and email together. When it fills, uploads fail, email bounces and updates break.
1. See the total
The DirectAdmin dashboard shows disk use against your allowance.
2. Check the usual suspects, biggest first
Backups left on the server. Full backups in your backups folder can be as large as the whole account. Download them, then delete them. How to create and download a full account backup
Email. E-mail Manager then E-mail Accounts shows each mailbox’s usage. Empty Trash and Junk, archive old mail locally and set quotas. Mailbox size, quotas and ‘mailbox full’ errors
Application backups. Backup plugins often store archives in wp-content/ subfolders (for example updraft or ai1wm-backups). Download and delete them.
Caches. Clear page cache folders such as wp-content/cache.
Logs. Large error_log or debug.log files. Read, fix the cause, delete.
Uploads. Original photos far larger than the site needs. How to optimise images for a faster website
Staging copies and old installs. A forgotten copy of the site doubles its footprint.
Databases. Large tables of logs, sessions or revisions. Cleaning up and optimising the WordPress database
3. Delete safely
- Download anything you might want first
- Delete rather than move within the account — moving doesn’t free space
- Recheck usage on the dashboard afterwards (it can take a little while to update)
Keep it from filling again
- Send backups straight to cloud storage
- Set mailbox quotas
- Host large video elsewhere and embed it