Okay I’ll admit it, I’m a little late for a new year resolution post and entirely too early for one about spring cleaning, but I’m conveniently choosing to ignore those two facts completely and instead intend to combine the two. From the point of view of a support desk and the queries we see, what are the best resolutions you can make for your hosting account and why is it best to spring clean occasionally?
As a rather untidy person I’ll leave aside uncomfortable questions of what orderliness says about a person’s general mental state, but there are good reasons to review what’s stored on your account:
- Out of date scripting can attract attacks from malicious third parties.
- It’s a lot easier to manage your account if you know where everything is and what it does.
- An account that contains only required content generally runs it’s backups a lot faster and the backup will be smaller. If you like to download a copy of your entire account regularly, cleaning up can really save time.
- You’ll have more room for content you do wish to store, such as backups of photos or other files you’ve uploaded to your account via web disk.
Take a backup of your account
We take backups of each account for disaster recovery purposes, however it’s worth considering whether you wish to take your own backups on a schedule of your own choosing.
It’s a great idea to take a backup of your account before making significant changes, in case you find you’ve deleted something you later find that you need.
We’ll do our best to assist if you suddenly find you need an old file, but we can’t guarantee to have the specific file you need from the specific date.
Remove Unused Script Installs
If you’ve installed scripts using the Site Software feature in your hosting account control panel any you no longer need can be removed just as easily.
Navigate to “Software / Site Software”, click the name of the script you wish to remove. At the bottom of the following page there is an “Uninstall” section where existing installs can be removed.
If you are removing scripts you have installed manually (outside of Site Software), remember to remove the database and associated user after you’ve deleted the script itself. Removing scripts you don’t need means you don’t have to spend time updating them as new versions are released to keep your account safe.
Update Scripts to Latest Versions
While you’re in the Site Software section of your account, check whether any installs you wish to retain need an update. Performing an update will give you the latest and greatest additions to the script in question, but arguably more importantly may well install security fixes for vulnerabilities that have been discovered in the software.
If you have installed scripting manually, you may be able to update it within the software’s own dashboard, alternatively it is likely you will need to download the new version from the developer’s website and apply this update per their instructions (normally via FTP or the file manager in the hosting account control panel).
Don’t forget to also update any plugins, modules, components or themes you may have added over time to your install.
Remove Unwanted Email
The "add / remove email accounts" section of the hosting account control panel will give you a good idea how much disk space your mailboxes are using.
Good places to check for large amounts of email you might want to delete are the ‘Trash’ folder and if you’ve enabled it, the SpamAssassin Spam Box (‘Spam’ folder).
And before I go…
A little note. Feel free to ask us if you’re at all unsure about whether you can safely delete something from your account. Generally speaking you shouldn’t remove anything from the base (root) of your hosting account you did not put there yourself. It’s normal to see a number of directories at this level you did not create.
Generally speaking your own scripts and website content will be present within the public_html folder.
If you have any doubts about where your disk usage is going, please feel free to submit a ticket and we’ll take a look.
If you do find you need more space, all of our accounts can be upgraded via your billing account instantly at any time. For those with even larger needs for storage space don’t forget that we also now provide VPS Packages which come with disk allocations appropriate to a server.