HTTP 507 Insufficient Storage: Free Disk Space and Fix Quotas

A 507 means the server could not complete the request because it cannot store the representation needed to finish it. It was defined for WebDAV, where it signals a full disk or an exceeded quota on a PUT, COPY, MKCOL or similar write. The condition is treated as temporary, since freeing space can make the same request succeed. See the HTTP 507 reference.

You are most likely to meet it when uploading to a WebDAV or cloud-sync service, saving files through a file-management API, or pushing to a server whose disk or storage quota is full.

If you are a visitor or user

1. Check your own quota. In a sync or storage service, an account at its limit often returns 507 on upload. Delete files or empty the trash, since trashed files commonly still count.
2. Try a smaller file to see whether the limit is size or total space.
3. Wait and retry. If the owner is already fixing a full disk, the error will clear.
4. Contact the site or service owner, naming the upload and time.

If you run the server: confirm it is storage

Start with the obvious and then the less obvious:

df -h            # free blocks per filesystem
df -i            # free inodes per filesystem
sudo du -xh / --max-depth=1 2>/dev/null | sort -h | tail -n 15

A filesystem at 100% in df -h is the classic cause. A filesystem with free blocks but IUse% at 100% in df -i is inode exhaustion, which also makes writes fail with "No space left on device" even though gigabytes remain.

Causes, most likely first

1. The disk or partition is full

Logs, caches, backups, old uploads, mail queues and container layers are the usual culprits. Find and trim them:

sudo journalctl --disk-usage
sudo journalctl --vacuum-size=500M
sudo du -xh /var --max-depth=2 | sort -h | tail -n 15

Rotate large logs with logrotate, remove stale backups, and for Docker hosts review docker system df before running docker system prune, which deletes unused data. Read the Docker website-down checklist for the safe order. A deleted file that a process still holds open does not release space until the process restarts; sudo lsof +L1 lists them.

2. Inodes are exhausted

Millions of tiny files, such as PHP session files, cache directories or mail spool entries, can use every inode. Find the directory with the most files:

sudo find /var -xdev -type f | cut -d/ -f1-4 | sort | uniq -c | sort -n | tail

Clean the offending directory (for example expired sessions) and fix the process that creates the files, with a cache expiry or a garbage collection setting.

3. A user, application or object-store quota is reached

The disk may have space while the user or app has none. Check filesystem quotas with quota -u username or repquota -a, and application limits such as the per-user quota in Nextcloud or ownCloud, which are WebDAV servers that can answer 507 for an over-quota user. Raise the quota, or have the user free space. For managed hosting, view the storage figure in the control panel, since hosting plans cap total disk including email.

4. The WebDAV backend or temp directory is full

A web server can buffer an upload in a temporary location before moving it. If that location is on a small partition such as /tmp or a RAM disk, large uploads fail while the main data volume is fine. In nginx, client_body_temp_path and the dav module's dav_methods writes use specific paths; in PHP, check upload_tmp_dir. nginx's WebDAV module is documented to return 507 on out-of-space errors; confirm against the current docs for your version. Move the temp path to a larger volume.

5. A network or cloud volume reports full or read-only

A cloud block volume, NFS mount or network share can fill, disconnect, or go read-only after errors. Check mount | grep ' ro,' and the system log with dmesg | tail. Expand the volume, remount it, or restore connectivity. Resizing a volume may also require growing the filesystem (resize2fs or xfs_growfs); follow your provider's documentation.

How to verify

Re-run df -h and df -i to confirm space and inodes are available, then retry the exact upload or request. Check the response with the HTTP स्टेटस चेकर where a plain request is possible, and look at the access and error logs for a new 507 or "No space left on device" entry.

Prevention matters more than the cleanup. Set a disk-usage alert at 80%, and watch the storage-backed pages with an अपटाइम मॉनिटर so you hear about failures before users do. A full disk often takes down databases and logging as well, so see Fix 500 Internal Server Error if other symptoms appear.

अगले कदम

• Compare with HTTP 413 when the request itself is too big.
• Diagnose broader failures with the वेबसाइट हेल्थ चेक.
• Use the Outage Root Cause Finder if multiple symptoms appear together.
• Read why is my website down for a full triage order.
• Review the HTTP 507 reference.

सामान्य प्रश्न

Is a 507 the same as 413?

No. A 413 means the request body is larger than a configured limit. A 507 means the server has no room left to store the result, regardless of limit settings.

Why do I get 507 when df shows free space?

Check inodes with df -i, filesystem or user quotas, and the temporary directory the upload uses. Any of them can be full while the main volume is not.

Is 507 only used for WebDAV?

It was defined in the WebDAV specification, so WebDAV servers use it most. Some APIs and storage services also reuse it for quota and full-storage conditions.

Will retrying work?

Yes, once space is freed or the quota is raised. The condition is considered temporary.

यह पेज सामान्य जानकारी है, जिसे हमारी संपादकीय टीम ने लिखा है और दस्तावेज़ीकरण बदलने पर अपडेट किया जाता है। सर्वर और प्रदाता अलग-अलग होते हैं, इसलिए बदलाव पहले सुरक्षित तरीके से जाँचें। देखें: संपादकीय नीति और अस्वीकरण.