Last Updated on January 27, 2024 by Justin Su
Running a WordPress website on shared hosting is not an easy task for beginners. As we know shared hosting provides fewer resources and limited access to resources to run any website.
Due to that many WordPress site owners do face File Usage Reaches and IOPS Exceeded issues. I am also a victim of this and that’s why I thought of sharing methods and ways through which you can reduce file usage and solve IOPS reached issues in cPanel.
If you are one who faced such a problem or running a website on WordPress then you should read this article and if you found this article useful then do not forget to share.
Table of Contents
When I Started Facing File Usage and IOPS Issues?
I have been running a website on WordPress for the last 2 years and have grown the website quite well. Reached more than 1500 views daily on my website and in that journey I added many plugins and removed many plugins.
Slowly I found that my website is loading very slowly, the average loading time was around 3.5 seconds and sometimes it takes more time.
Hence I asked my friends to visit my website and tell me how much time it takes to open my website. Some of my friends told me that the website takes more than 5 to 6 seconds to load and sometimes it doesn’t open and throws errors.
My website traffic started dropping, from 1500 views daily it went down to 1200 to 1000, and then slowly it went all down to 70 views daily. This is where I started taking action.
Why Do We Face File Usage & IOPS Problems?
After analyzing my website and optimizing it I found various reasons why I was facing these issues with my website. I am considering whether you have shared hosting or any small hosting plan.
Inactive Plugins and Old Plugins Data
When I started analyzing my website I found many files related to old plugins stored in my file manager and some of them were big. It is important to delete files from the file manager when you remove any plugin or not using any plugin.
If you have inactive plugins then do delete them immediately because they might be consuming resources.
Delete Inactive Themes and Files
Inactive themes store unused files in your disk and it increases disk usage or file usage. Inactive themes consume file usage and disk space on your cPanel. It is important to remove inactive themes, most of the time people test different themes but they do not delete unused themes.
Bot Traffic or Attack
Sometimes your rival starts using unethical activities to stop your website from growing. Bot Attack is one of the simplest and easiest ways to attack any website.
It stops the website from loading and decreases the website’s rank in search engines.
Image Size
I do not suggest using free image compressors.
When you publish the article you ideally add 1 to 3 images to each article and sometimes beginners do not compress their images. Most sizes of original images are big usually 500KB to 2 MB.
I suggest resizing your images before uploading them to your website, so you don’t need to use any plugin for image compression.
If you already have uploaded images and can’t resize & upload then use Image compressors but use paid ones only.
Limited Hosting Plans
You might be using hosting plans that have limited use cases or offer limited CPU usage and others. Hence it is always suggested to use hosting plans that can support more than 10K visitors or the number of real visitors you have.
Check Your Email
Sometimes hackers do put malicious files in your hosting using different methods they do hack your hosting email. Don’t send bad emails and clog up your “mail” folder.
How To Reduce File Usage In cPanel and IOPS Reached Issue
As mentioned above there are many reasons why we do face file usage issues and IOPS reached issues in cPanel. You do not have to worry much as here are some simple and easiest methods to get out of this problem.
Upgrade Your Hosting Plan (Instant Solution)
Most beginners do use shared hosting for their WordPress website, shared hosting is OK when you have less than 5000 unique visitors each month and have a small website.
But once your website starts growing it is important to upgrade your hosting plan. If you have quite enough budget then go with VPS hosting
A basic shared hosting plan will cost you $4.00 to $6 per month. If you are using Namecheap then go with the VPS Quasher plan which will cost $12.88 per month or if you are using Bluehost then go with any VPS plan starting from $20 per month or choose Shared Hosting’s Pro plan cost is $13.95 per month. ( I do recommend Bluehost).
You will never face any problem related to disk space or IOPS with upgraded hosting plans, check out the list of best-hosting companies.
Use Caching Plugins
The caching plugin helps you to optimize your website and increases your website speed. There are lots of caching plugins but I recommend WP-Optimize and the following plugins as well, WP Fastest Cash and W3Total Cash.
If you are using Bluehost then they do offer in-built caching plugins. Do not go for paid plugins free versions are always better to use.
Use CDN
CDN or Content Delivery Network helps your sites to load faster from a different location. There are many plugins for WordPress sites for CDN purposes.
I suggest using Cloudflare if you want to get free service but when your site grows you have to go with a paid one. I suggest using BunnyCDN (Check BunnyCDN Review), Sucuri, and KeyCDN.
Analyze Plugins
Even after following the above-mentioned methods your website is facing IOPS and Disk Reached in cPanel then you should try to deactivate each plugin and check for results.
Every time you deactivate check your cPanel after 2-3 minutes to know if the problem is solved or not. By this method, you will get to know which plugin is using the most resources.