Cpanel Shows Reporting wrong mails/directory size

In this tutorial, we will describe how to recover disk space by root or using cPanel.

cPanel frequently reports an inaccurate value for the /mail/ directory in the cPanel->Disk Usage interface.

  • The value returned by the shell in our test case is 310MB:
root@web [/home/mmtest]# du -sh mail
310M    mail
root@web [/home/mmtest]#

Using Root Directory

However, cPanel reports a value of 562.89MB, This is due to the dovecot server failing to update the disc use accurately.

  • Run the commands below to rectify the problem:
# /scripts/generate_maildirsize --confirm --allaccounts --verbose $username
root@web [/home/mmtest]# /scripts/generate_maildirsize --confirm --allaccounts --verbose mmtest
Rebuilding the maildirsize files for: mmtest
Rebuilding the maildirsize files for: arsam@mmtest133.com
Checking user mmtest
Calculating diskusage and diskcount from reading files
Writing /home/mmtest/mail/maildirsize for user merches
Checking user arsam@mmtest133.com
Calculating diskusage and diskcount from reading files
Writing /home/mmtest/mail/mmtest133.com/john/maildirsize for user john
root@web [/home/mmtest]#

After that, cPanel will report disc utilization correctly.

Using cPanel to check Disk Space

  • Log into your cPanel account:
  • Under the heading “Files,” select “Disk Usage”:

  • By clicking the “>” on the left of the folder name at the bottom of the page, you can expand the folders:

This will provide more information about each folder as well as the amount of disc space used.