How to Free Up Disk Space/Storage on Your Minecraft Server

Running out of disk space is a common issue many server owners face. In this guide, we will be showcasing various ways to free up disk space.

Information

The primary sources of disk space usage on Minecraft servers are the world files, backups, log files and plugins/mod data, especially map rendering tools like Dynmap.

How to Free Up Disk Space?

1. Deleting Server Logs

If you’ve had your server for a while, you’ve most likely generated a bunch of log files throughout the way. A new log file is generated each time your server boots up — these files can be found in the logs folder.

2. Deleting Crash Reports

If your server crashes frequently, crash reports can quickly pile up and consume a lot of disk space. While a few of crash reports may not seem like a problem, dozens or even hundreds can cause your server to use a large amount of storage.

3. Deleting Plugins/Mods Data

If you have installed map rendering tools like Bluemap or Dynmap, it is most likely using a lot of disk space on your server if the plugin/mod hasn’t been optimized to use storage properly. Deleting their data or optimizing it can drastically free up storage.

4. Setting Schedules

If deleting logs and other stuff is a bothersome chore, then you can set a schedule to automatically delete any logs, crash reports, and other files that are automatically generated overtime. I recommend checking out our guide on how to set up automatic schedules:

5. Deleting Unused Worlds

Important Information

If you accidentally deleted your world or regret deleting it, feel free to open a ticket and our technical support team will take a look whether we’re able to restore it.

We take daily backups of our client servers, so we’re able to restore a specific world from a backup when needed.

6. Deleting Backups

If you’ve installed a plugin/mod that handles backups on your server (like FTBBackups) by taking advantage of your server’s disk space, it’s possible that the mod has multiple backups taken of your server resulting in a high storage consumption.

These backups are usually stored in the plugin/mod’s folder that is located in the plugins or mods folder. Delete these to free up some disk space.

7. Enabling JVM flags

Enabling JVM flags can help with garbage collection, as a result, freeing up some disk space. We recommend checking out our guide on how to change your server’s startup parameters here:

Congratulations, you now know various ways to free up disk space! If you have any issues or questions, please contact us through the ticket system.