How to Delete Old Backups in cPanel and DirectAdmin to Free Up Disk Space

If your hosting account is suddenly close to its disk space limit, old backup files are one of the most common culprits. A full backup of a website with a large database or media library can easily run into several gigabytes, and if you take manual backups regularly, or have scheduled backups running without cleanup, they add up fast. This article covers how to check for old backup files and remove the ones you do not need, in both cPanel and DirectAdmin.

Why Old Backups Take Up So Much Space

A backup is a full copy of your website files, database, and sometimes your email accounts, packaged into one archive file (usually ending in .tar.gz or .zip). Unless you move each backup off the server after creating it, it sits in your hosting account using the same disk space quota as your live website. If you take a new full backup every week or month and never delete the older ones, you can end up with several large archives sitting unused.

Before deleting anything, make sure you have at least one recent, working backup saved somewhere other than your hosting account, such as on your computer or a cloud storage service. Once a backup file is deleted from your hosting account, it cannot be recovered.

How to Find and Delete Old Backup Files

In cPanel

1. Log in to cPanel and check whether your old backups were created with the Backup or Backup Wizard tool. If you chose to save the backup to your home directory instead of downloading it directly, it will be sitting there as a large file.
2. Open File Manager and navigate to your home directory (the folder that opens by default, above public_html).
3. Look for files with names like backup-(date)_(domain).tar.gz or similar. You can sort the file list by size to spot the largest ones quickly.
4. Select the backup files you no longer need, confirm you already have a current copy saved elsewhere, then click Delete to remove them.
5. If your account uses a dedicated backup manager (sometimes shown as its own icon in the cPanel home screen rather than the standard Backup Wizard), open it instead. These tools usually list every stored backup with its date and size, and give you a delete option next to each one, which is often quicker than searching through File Manager.

In DirectAdmin

1. Log in to DirectAdmin and open the Backup/Restore section, usually found under your account's main menu.
2. You will see a list of existing backup files stored on your account, each with its creation date and file size.
3. Tick the checkbox next to the backups you want to remove. Double-check the dates so you keep at least one recent backup.
4. Click Delete (or the equivalent remove action shown on that page) to clear the selected files from your account.

If Your Scheduled Backups Keep Piling Up

If you have automatic scheduled backups running, check how many copies the schedule keeps before it starts overwriting or removing older ones. A schedule with no limit on retained copies will keep adding new backup files indefinitely. Where possible, set it to keep only a small number of recent backups, and periodically download a copy to your own computer or a cloud drive using FTP or SFTP, then delete the server-side copy once it is safely stored elsewhere.

For more on checking what is using your space, see Understanding Your Hosting Account: Disk Space and Bandwidth Limits.