Enormous space use for Ubuntu and Docker...

[james]

Hello @miednr

Did you check your system where this storage usage is from?
You could run:

du -h -d 1 /

or use a tool like ncdu to explore this disk and the usage.
When you find what is using so much we can analyze it further.

[miednr]

Hello @james, I am investigating with ncdu now. Thank you!

It's 9.000.000 files (566 GiB) and still counting up. I guess, it could be because I am using sshfs (rsync) for saving backups to a Hetzner Storage Box. Does this backup method do save the backups additionally to the local drive? Rsync is synchronizing the data, but it seems that the full backup is also saved many times to the local ssd.

I hope the scan will finish soon, because my ssd seems to be quite full.

But, I see, that it's scanning the storage boxes now. But the issue remains. My ext4 is 4/5 full. But, my usual daily full backup is "only" 23 GiB.

[james]

Hello @miednr
You can limit the scan from ncdu to not scan certain paths.
See: https://linux.die.net/man/1/ncdu

[miednr]

Okay, I can now see, that a WordPress-Instance, I installed yesterday, takes 279 GiB and additionally var/libs/docker/overlay2 takes 47 GiB and var/libs/docker/volumes takes 12 GiB. That all seem quite much. What could be the reason?

Yesterday, I did a restore of a WordPress-Instance to a new Instance of WordPress. It may be possible, that I was entering the wrong path first, and it did "restore" not only the WordPress-Instance, but also Ubuntu and all the other 18 apps to this container. Is this possible? The second try did help, so WordPress works, but the SSD seems to be quite full and my nightly backups did fail, too.

What could I do? Should I delete the whole container? Or may I "repair it" by deleting obsolete files?

[james]

Hello @miednr

@miednr said in Enormous space use for Ubuntu and Docker...:

var/libs/docker/overlay2 takes 47 GiB and var/libs/docker/volumes takes 12 GiB. That all seem quite much. What could be the reason?

I can not evaluate if this disk usage is appropriate or not without knowledge about what apps you have installed.
But does not look to bad.

@miednr said in Enormous space use for Ubuntu and Docker...:

It may be possible, that I was entering the wrong path first, and it did "restore" not only the WordPress-Instance, but also Ubuntu and all the other 18 apps to this container. Is this possible?

If you used the normal Cloudron app restore, this would not be possible.
A Cloudron app backup does only include the app data and not the whole system.

@miednr said in Enormous space use for Ubuntu and Docker...:

What could I do? Should I delete the whole container? Or may I "repair it" by deleting obsolete files?

If a WordPress grows to such an extent without our knowledge, I would advise verifying what is happening.
This is unusual behaviour and might be a hint that something is wrong with your WordPress, may even be compromised.

[miednr]

Hello @james

Thanks a lot for your attention to this issue. My Apps do count 23 GiB in total. So, my WordPress is only 2 GiB. I can tell you, that my WordPress has not been compromised. But, it happened, that I entered "/folder" as backup path in the restore dialogue without the full restore path to WordPress. Then, Cloudron did not restore the WordPress-App alone. It went trough all the apps I have, downloaded them... and kind of installed them somehow. The data is saved in /home/yellowtent/appsdata/APP-ID ... There I find several copies of my general backup:

21.2 GiB [##############################] /snapshot
21.2 GiB [############################# ] /2026-02-13-010000-590
21.2 GiB [############################# ] /2026-02-18-010000-559
21.2 GiB [############################# ] /2026-02-17-010000-635
21.2 GiB [############################# ] /2026-02-16-010000-682
21.2 GiB [############################# ] /2026-02-15-010000-589
21.2 GiB [############################# ] /2026-02-12-010000-697
21.2 GiB [############################# ] /2026-02-14-010000-616
20.9 GiB [############################# ] /2026-02-11-010000-627
20.9 GiB [############################# ] /2026-02-10-010000-615
20.8 GiB [############################# ] /2026-02-09-123024-982
17.0 GiB [######################## ] /2026-02-13-185621-628
17.0 GiB [######################## ] /2026-02-17-230004-017
...
..
.

Is it safe, to delete these files manually?

[miednr]

I see three relevant choices:

A) Delete WordPress-App with all the data via UI of Cloudron and restore it from backup...
B) Delete Data selectively via CLI
C) Complete Server Restore (2 days ago)

What would you recommend me to do?

[james]

Hello @miednr
Thanks for the report.
It should be safe to just delete the WordPress app that got restored incorrectly and that should also delete everything in that app.

Let me discuss this internally first since this is a great opportunity to improve Cloudron so we can add an optional failsafe to avoid this happening again.

[miednr]

Hello @james

Great to hear, you'll use this information to improve Cloudron.

Will the deletion of the App also reduce space used in the folder of docker?

Please have a look into your eMails... I did send you a very short screen video (< 60 seconds), that I wasn't able to attach here.

[james]

Hello @miednr
For documentation and reproduction, can you recall how you did this app restore to end up with this?
You mentioned:

@miednr said in Enormous space use for Ubuntu and Docker...:

It may be possible, that I was entering the wrong path first

Are you able to recall what you did there so we might be able to reproduce this?

[miednr]

Hello @james, it has been my first restore in fact.

You have to enter the backup path:
/foldername/remote path and I just entered /foldername/

[james]

Hello @miednr

Did you download the backup config from the app and import it in the restore precess or did you type in everything manually?
Also, what backup provider are you using?

[miednr]

Hello @james I am using a Hetzner Storage Box (SSHFS / rsync) and I did not download the backup information and import it into the restore process by error. I thought, that Cloudron will "know" the correct App to restore, but I learned, that this was not the case and can not be the case, because the kind of the app (WordPress) is not indicator enough for the right instance. There could be several WordPress Apps in the system, what I did not think about. It was a mistake, but maybe it could be prevented, that all data is downloaded when not providing the remote path. Maybe the restore process should not run without the remote path?

[miednr]

Hey @james, I did not yet act. Just one question: will the deletion of the mal app also delete the data in the docker directory?

[james]

Hello @miednr
You can unintall the app from the Cloudron Dashboard. This will also delete the data in /home/yellowtent/appsdata/$APPID
The docker directly looks correct from the size you reported.

[miednr]

Hello @james

I investigated further and it has been just a copy of my backup storage box (snapshot + data folders) in the folder /home/yellowtent/appsdata/$APPID. I deleted all the folders that do belong to the backup and not to the app. Of course, everything works smooth now. Thank you!

[james]

Hello @miednr

Always happy to help.