Knowledge Base

How to bring an over-quota CodeGuard account back under its storage limit

Updated on June 28, 2026

Overview

By the end of this article, you will be able to choose and apply a method to bring your CodeGuard account back under its storage quota so that your backups keep running. It covers four options: upgrading your plan to increase your storage limit, deleting old backups through your Backup Retention Settings, reducing a website’s backup size by excluding large files, and removing websites or databases you no longer need backed up. It also explains what “over quota” means and what happens if an account stays over quota.

What does “over quota” mean?

A CodeGuard account is over quota when the total size of its stored backups is larger than the storage limit included in your plan. Being over quota does not delete your data, but it does need to be resolved: if the account stays over quota for an extended period, CodeGuard turns off backups for every website and database in the account until you reduce usage or raise the limit.

Option 1 — Upgrade your plan to increase your storage limit

Upgrading your plan is the quickest way to get back under quota, and it lets you keep all of your existing data in CodeGuard without deleting anything. Higher plans also add storage space and other features as your account grows.

To upgrade, review the available plans and select one with more storage: https://www.codeguard.com/pages/plans

Option 2 — Delete old backups using your Backup Retention Settings

If you would rather reduce storage than upgrade, you can delete older backups you no longer need:

Open your Account Settings page in CodeGuard.

Go to Backup Retention Settings.

Adjust the retention settings to remove older backups and free up space.

Option 3 — Reduce a website’s backup size

You can lower how much space a single website uses by backing up fewer files:

Delete the website from CodeGuard.

Re-add the website, selecting fewer files and folders to include in the backup.

Exclude folders that contain large amounts of images or videos, because these are usually the largest files.

If you want to keep the website but exclude only certain items, you can exclude specific files or directories instead of removing and re-adding the site. For the detailed steps, see the CodeGuard support article on excluding files and directories from a backup: After I add a website, how do I change what files are backed up? | Sectigo® Official
Website Settings | Sectigo® Official

Option 4 — Remove websites or databases you no longer back up

If some websites or databases no longer need protection, you can delete them from your CodeGuard account to recover their storage. Remove only the websites and databases you are sure you no longer want backed up, because deleting them also removes their existing backups.

What happens if your account stays over quota

Any of the options above will bring the account back under its quota limit. Resolve the issue before the account remains over quota for an extended period: while an account is over quota for too long, CodeGuard turns off backups for all websites and databases in the account until you complete one of the actions above.

Tips

Most of these changes are made in your CodeGuard website settings. A video walkthrough of the website settings is available if you want to see where to make them: [insert video walkthrough link].