Why have I exceeded my web storage limit? 28 July 2016  |  Cate

A question we get asked often is why have I exceeded my web storage limit and what on earth does it mean? Never fear, we've answered all of your web storage questions below and have also included some handy tips to help maintain your usage in the future.

What is web storage?

Web storage is the the amount of space on a server that is allocated to your account package. So, if your website is on the Business package then you will have been allocated 1GB of web storage. Web storage is used to store your content, emails and all files related to your website so it can be accessed by internet browsers and displayed for visitors to see.

How much web storage you will need will depend on the content you want to put on your site and what you need to store. This includes text, all images such as product images and banner images, PDF files, emails, your theme files and etc.

On the homepage in your admin console you will be able to see how much web storage you've used. You can hover over the main figure to see your web storage usage limit and how this is being used, broken down into File Storage, Database Storage and Email Storage. If you are below your limit the overall figure will be shown in green, but if you have gone over it, it will show in red.

Why is my web storage not unlimited?

Many companies across the internet claim to offer unlimited web storage and we often get asked why we don't. The simple answer to that is, nothing is truly unlimited in this world, there's always a catch. For example, if you look at Go Daddy's web hosting page, as shown below, you'll see they offer unlimited storage on their middle and top packages. You will also notice a green question mark icon next to this statement. This is the catch.

If you click on the green question mark it explains that they don't limit web storage as long as you comply with their Hosting Agreement. If you can be bothered to read this incredibly long agreement you'll notice you only get 1GB of storage and, if you go over this, you'll either need to remove a number of files to bring it down to below 1GB or move to a dedicated server, the cheapest currently being £86.99 per month. Not exactly unlimited then.

What if I go over my web storage limit?

Whenever you go over your web storage limit you'll be notified within the admin console. As soon as you log in you will be immediately greeted with a pop up as shown below.

The message tells you of the amount you have exceeded by, in this case 4732MB over the allocated amount.

It also tells you what the consequences are, which include being unable to send or receive emails or upload any files. These limitations only occur if you have exceeded more than 100MB over your allocated amount, which allows you to sort things out before they get too serious.

Lastly, it tells you that you will need to do one of two things, either remove a number of files from your website to reduce the web storage you are using or upgrade your package to add further web storage to your site. If you wish to upgrade, please email us and include your domain name and the package you want to upgrade to.

If you click OK on the popup, you will still see a warning message within the homepage of the admin console and the Web Storage Usage amount will be highlighted in red.

Tips for using your web storage better

There are several ways you can reduce the amount of web storage you are using and we recommend checking these every so often to make sure you don't go over your limit unnecessarily.

1. Email storage

   
   
   • If you are using the built in Bluepark email accounts, always delete any unwanted emails and clear out the deleted folder.
   • If you are using an email client such as Outlook make sure emails are set to be deleted from the server. (This will only work if you are using POP3 to retrieve your emails. IMAP email accounts access emails stored on the server.)
   • Alternatively, you may want to move your emails away from Bluepark. The easiest way to do this is by creating email forwarders in your Bluepark admin console to forward the emails coming into your website to external mailboxes such as in Gmail.

2. File storage

   
   

   In Admin > Files, click the Calculate link under the Size column (email accounts has the same function). This will show the total size of each file and folder and you will instantly see where most of your storage is being taken up.

   The worst offender usually tends to be the products folder, this is where all of the product images are contained. When you click into this folder you'll find three folders followed by a list of image files. The image files are the main images and the large, thumbnail and basket images are in the folders.

   

   Once you've clicked into the products folder you will see a new button, called Check Assignment, appear at the top right. By clicking this you can check which image files are actually assigned to products and which are not.

   

   A pop up will tell you how many images are not assigned and the system will automatically tick these. You can then double check each image if you wish and, once you're happy, you can click the Delete Selected button to delete all of files that are ticked.

   The products folders is the only area in the File Manager this functionality is available in. Files within all other areas of the File Manager will need to be checked manually before deleting.

3. Images

   Optimising your images is not only good for reducing your web storage usage but it's also good for SEO and customer experience, so it's always worth spending a bit of time on. Have a read of our blog post Best Practices for eCommerce Website Photos and Product Images to find out how to go about this.