Storage usage incorrect

  • lilynwill · Member ·

    I have 3 GB storage for my site. WordPress says I have used all of it, however when I download the Media Library it is only 2.6 GB. I am certain the storage calculation is incorrect.

    Is there any way to trigger WordPress to recalculate the used storage?

    WP.com: Yes
    Jetpack: No
    Correct account: Yes

    The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)

  • staff-zinnia · Staff ·

    Howdy –

    Thanks for getting in touch. I also see the storage is full at 3gb on the back end of things here.

    Which steps did you take to see the 2.6 gb message? I want to try and replicate that if possible and maybe see where the discrepancy is happening.

    Keep in mind, that when something is removed from your media it’s also going to break on the front end of the site. Removing items is not ideal for creating room for new media. The personal plan would be a good step for this project. It’s only $4/month and you’d get the expanded storage you’re needing. It would double your limit to 6 gb.

  • lilynwill · Member ·

    I Exported the media library using Tools/ Export/ Export media library/ Download. The resulting folder once I expand the .tar is 2.65 GB

    FWIW, I was at 3GB but I reduced edited a bunch of pictures that were uploaded at too high of a resolution. I went to Media/ Classic View/ Click an Image/ Edit Image/ Scale image. This does reduce the size of of the media library, however the size reduction is not recognized by wordpress. I also tried deleting 1 image to see if that would get it to recalculate, but no luck.

    What user action other than adding media gets the storage to recalculate? It seems I can only make the size go up :{

  • 4dmethod · Member ·

    I Exported the media library using Tools/ Export/ Export media library/ Download. The resulting folder once I expand the .tar is 2.65 GB

    FWIW, I was at 3GB but I reduced edited a bunch of pictures that were uploaded at too high of a resolution. I went to Media/ Classic View/ Click an Image/ Edit Image/ Scale image. This does reduce the size of of the media library, however the size reduction is not recognized by wordpress. I also tried deleting 1 image to see if that would get it to recalculate, but no luck.

    What user action other than adding media gets the storage to recalculate? It seems I can only make the size go up :{

  • lilynwill · Member ·

    @staff-zinnia Do you have any tips for how to get WordPress to recalculate the space used by the media library? Thanks!

  • staff-totoro · Staff ·

    Hi @lilynwill

    When you download media in a .tar file, that is compressed and not an accurate reflection of the uncompressed space that is in use. On our end we show that the site is using precisely 3079.1834630966 MB at the time you posted to the forums.

    I went to Media/ Classic View/ Click an Image/ Edit Image/ Scale image. This does reduce the size of of the media library, however the size reduction is not recognized by wordpress. I also tried deleting 1 image to see if that would get it to recalculate, but no luck.

    There may be some caching involved in the figure you see in the media library so you may not see the storage value change right away. But I’ve checked and in the interface we currently show that you are using 99.4% of 3 GB here: https://wordpress.com/media/lilynwill.wordpress.com

    Internally we calculate data in megabytes but display it in GB, so there is a bit of rounding involved. To be accurate 1 GB is equal to 1024 megabytes, so 3 GB of storage works out to 3072 MB. Based on your recent activity I show the usage at 3054.320019722 MB, which is very close to the 99.4% figure shown in the Media Library.

    More info about deleting images here: https://wordpress.com/support/media/#delete-files-from-media

    Hope that helps. Please let us know if you have any more questions.

  • 4dmethod · Member ·

    @staff-totoro Thanks for your response. The media library is 2.65 GB when it is unzipped. The metric on Worpress is simply wrong. Is there any way for it to be recalculated beyond my exporting the entire site and re-importing it?

  • aisajib · Staff ·

    Hi there!

    I just wanted to let you know that we’ve asked our developers to look into this. We’ll get back to you here as soon as we have an update.

    Thanks!

  • 4dmethod · Member ·

    @aisajib Fantastic. Thank you for carrying the issue forward. Clearly it should be possible to reduce storage used by editing down image resolution. I appreciate your giving the issue focus!

  • lilynwill · Member ·

    @aisajib I still cannot add any new media. What is the status of this issue? Would it be possible to raise my memory allocation temporarily until the issue with WordPress.com is fixed?

  • staff-totoro · Staff ·

    Hi there,

    I still cannot add any new media. What is the status of this issue?

    We had our engineering team look into this and the reason for the discrepancy is due to the fact that when you edit an image on your site (crop, rotate, resize, etc.) we keep the original copy available in the event that you wish to restore to the unedited version of the photo: https://wordpress.com/support/media/editing-an-image/#restore-the-original-image

    According to what we can see, there are a total of 169 edited images in your media library, and these un-edited copies are what take up the remaining 0.45 GB of data in your media library. There is not a display issue with the storage we show, and your site is correctly showing as being over the 3 GB limit for legacy free sites.

    Would it be possible to raise my memory allocation temporarily until the issue with WordPress.com is fixed?

    You can add storage space by upgrading to our Personal plan, which will add 3 more GB of storage (6 GB total) and also will turn off the ads we show on free sites to help cover our costs:

    It is also possible to purchase extra storage space (a la carte) here: https://wordpress.com/add-ons/lilynwill.wordpress.com

    Please note that you do not appear to be an admin on lilynwill.wordpress.com (your role is that of Editor) so you may need to ask the site admin to make this purchase on your behalf, or upgrade your account to “administrator” so you can make add the upgrade under your account. Hope that helps. Please let us know if you have any more questions.

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