Piwigo.org

zjohn13 · 2026-02-17 21:47:41

Hi,

I have been using Piwigo for many years but I now have a problem that I have not seen before.
Over the last few days I have had a number of messages from my system Host, Web Solutions Direct, that I have exceeded my disk capacity.

After deleting some files all was OK for a day or so but then the same message arrived.
It turned out that hundreds and hudreds of files were being created non stop up to 10 files per second in the server Public Html/Data/Combined folder.
Each file is averaging 50 Mb.

A support person at my Host has set up a prog that keeps deleting the files as they arrive, but this is only temporary.

This is his recommendation: There’s nothing wrong with the Photo app itself, the issue is coming from your rewrite rules because they’re generating excessive redirects, which is why all those cache/combined files are being created.

I copied one of the .css files to a Word document.
Below is the fist page out of 10 pages.

If anyone can understand what this means and how I can rectify the problem, I will be most gratefull.

Thanks,
John

Piwigo 15.7.0
Installed on 20 July 2015, 10 years 6 months 4 weeks ago
Operating system: Linux
PHP: 8.0.30 (Show info) [2026-02-17 19:29:49]
MySQL: 10.11.16-MariaDB [2026-02-17 19:29:49]
Graphics Library: External ImageMagick 6.9.13-25
Cache size 2792.18 MB

Piwigo URL: https://www.chilternphoto.org.uk/

1jy8e20.css ( ASCII text, with very long lines )
/*BEGIN header */

/*BEGIN themes/stripped/theme.css */
#thePicturePage .left_block,#thePicturePage .right_block,#thePicturePage .middle_block,content{padding:0 5px}hr{border-style:solid;border-width:1px}h1,h2,h3{margin:0;padding:0;font-size:1em}a{text-decoration:none}:focus{outline:0}img{border:0}h1{font-size:153.846%}table{border-spacing:0px}body{font-size:13px}body,input,select,textarea,file{font-family:"Century Gothic", "Lucida Grande", Verdana, DejaVu Sans, sans-serif}#content p,#theNotificationPage li,#content fieldset,.filter{text-align:left}#theHeader,.commentElement blockquote,.commentElement .author,#contenteditid,.additional_info,#Author .value,#Tcaption,.personal_block{text-transform:none}.randomButtons,.categoryActions,.commentList .action{text-transform:lowercase}body{margin:0;padding:0}#the_page{max-width:1120px;width:99%;margin:auto;padding:0}#theHeader{margin-bottom:4px}#content{max-width:1080px;width:100%;margin:0;padding:12px 20px}#thePicturePage #content{max-width:1120px;padding:0}#content{max-width:1120px;padding:12px 0;display:table}#thePicturePage #content{max-width:none;padding:0;display:block}#theCategoryPage #content{text-align:center}#content_cell{display:table-cell;vertical-align:top;max-width:1120px;padding:0;margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto;width:100%}#thumbnails_block1{max-width:940px;margin:auto}#thumbnails_block2{position:relative;margin:0;padding:0;width:auto;min-height:540px}#thumbnails{position:static;margin:0 20px}.thumbnailCategories{max-width:900px;padding:0 20px;margin:auto}#calendar_block{padding:0 20px;max-width:800px;margin:auto}#theHeader h1{padding:1em 0 0}#theHeader p{padding:0;margin:0}.subcontent h2{margin:0 0 1em}input,select,textarea{margin:1px 0}.content_block h2{font-size:115.385%}.titrePage,.titrePage a{font-weight:bold;font-variant:normal}.titrePage{min-height:22px;font-size:115.385%;margin:3px 0 0 0;line-height:1.4em}.titrePage h2{margin:1em 0;padding:0;display:inline}.titrePage .button{float:none}.titrePage img{float:left;max-height:16px}#thePicturePage .titrePage img{margin:0 5px}.titrePage .categoryActionsContainer{float:right;margin:0;padding:0 0 0 3px;list-style:none;height:22px;width:auto;font-size:86.667%}.categoryActions{display:inline;padding:0}.categoryActions li{display:inline;vertical-align:top;padding-left:7px;float:left}.categoryActions .pwg-icon{display:none}.categoryActions li.mainAction{float:right}.subcontent .stuffs_block,.content_block{max-width:890px;margin:auto;padding:0 25px}.content_block .additional_info{max-width:870px;margin:5px 0px;padding:10px;-moz-border-radius:10px;-webkit-border-radius:10px;border-radius:10px}#content .content_block .additional_info p{text-align:justify}#menuswitcher{cursor:pointer}.js #menubar{display:none}.js .menuShown #menubar{display:block}#menubar{width:159px;margin:0;padding:0 0 0 20px;float:left;text-align:left;display:block}#menubar dl{margin:0}#menubar li{list-style-type:disc}#menubar dt{font-weight:bold;font-size:115.384%}#menubar dd{margin:0;padding:0.5em 1em 1em 1em}#menubar dd ul{margin:0;padding:0 0 0 1em}#menubar .menuInfoCatByChild,#menubar .menuInfoCat{font-size:76.923%}#menubar .totalImages{font-size:84.615%;font-style:italic;margin:0}#menubar #mbIdentification div{margin-bottom:6px}#menubar #mbIdentification .submit_block{margin-bottom:0}#menubar dd.randompicdd{margin:0;padding:0}#menubar .ammillustrationc{margin:0}#menubar #menuTagCloud{font-size:92.308%}.js ul.thumbnailCategories li{cursor:pointer}.js .naf ul.thumbnailCategories li{cursor:default}.js .naf ul.thumbnailCategories li .text{cursor:pointer}.js .stuffs ul.thumbnailCategories li,.js .stuffs ul.thumbnailCategories li .text{cursor:default}.stuffs_block .personal_block ul.thumbnailCategories,.thumbnailCategories{overflow:hidden;list-style:none}.stuffs_block .personal_block ul.thumbnailCategories li,.thumbnailCategories

zjohn13 · 2026-02-20 17:39:20

Hi,

Delving deeper into this problem it seems that it is linked to a URL Rewrite, this is something new to me.
In the detail I have seen references to the Piwigo NG Phone app as well as the Server version.
Has there been any change to the Piwigo URL Rewrite recently?

Thanks,
John

Katryne · 2026-02-20 19:19:52

John, I met a similar issue 2 years ago, because I had tried to have 2 web sites url leading to the same Piwigo. I just wanted to test if it was possible and it worked well ! Then I forgot about it and suddenly the site grew so much and so quickly that the hosting quota exploded and everything was blocked. After some cleaning, I deleted one of the subdomain url and everything has been OK since then. In a way, my issue was due to an url problem.

On your side, maybe you shoul review your URL-rewriting rules. Did you made anything special either via Local Files Editor or directly in the .htaccess ?

zjohn13 · 2026-02-21 16:30:43

Katryne,

Many thanks for your input.
Your experience in running two copies of the same Piwigo albums has made me think.
I have installed the Piwigo NG Phone App on my Phone. I wonder if that could that be causing the problem?
I'll delete the Phone App right now.

John.

Katryne · 2026-02-21 17:45:17

John, that had nothing to do with the Piwigo NG app. I have both Piwigo and Piwigo NG aps on my phone, with no ptroblem at all.
At the time, I had 2 sub-domains leading to the same Piwigo.
- https://balades.comoni.org
- http://something.katrynou.fr

I kept the 1st, deleted the 2nd and never more I met any problem with the disk capacity.

Have a look too at Gotcha's post on the French forum. He says that the disk capacity issue he met was due to too many log files and he gives à solution for that.

https://fr.piwigo.org/forum/viewtopic.p … 00#p243900

zjohn13 · 2026-02-21 19:10:29

Katryne,

Oh well, I was rather grabing at straws there with the mobile.

I have two Albums with one on a sub-domain that is for testing.
https://www.chilternphoto.org.uk/
https://www.piwigotest.chilternphoto.org.uk/

My album is not as sophisticated at yours but it contains many photos, its been running for 10 years.
I manage it for a PhotoGroup with many people submitting photos.
This problem has only been occuring during the last few weeks.

I looked at Gotcha's web page and he is right but these log files usually only arive occasionally but I'm getting hundreds of them per day.
I've been deleting files from Logs and Combined folders.
Our Host support people have set up an auto delete routine for these file while I try to find a solution.

I guess that I need to get to grips with how File Directs works and why it started now.

Many Thanks,
John

Katryne · 2026-02-21 20:11:16

Back to the 2 URLs story : your main site can be reached via 2 URLs :
- https://www.chilternphoto.org.uk/
- https://chilternphoto.org.uk/

I don't say it's the reason why, I am no coder. When I do new things on my websites, I don't think about it, I don't try to understand it: I try everything in every possible way until it works the way I want it to. I'm a literary person; I don't have a scientific mind.

zjohn13 · 2026-02-22 17:03:31

Katryne,

Your keep trying approach sounds positive.

So, I opened the Server "cPanel - Domains" with high hopes but it only displayed the https://chilternphoto.org.uk/ URL, but not the www one, along with the Test URL, see below.

Domain Document Root Redirects To Force HTTPS Redirect
chilternphoto.org.uk (Main Domain) /public_html Not Redirected Off

piwigotest.chilternphoto.org.uk /public_html/piwigo_test Not Redirected Off

Still, onwards and upwards, I'll continue trying.

Thanks,
John

zjohn13 · 2026-02-24 13:12:34

Katryne,

I have taken the plunge and removed my piwigotest.chilternphoto.org.uk Domain.
It was installed in 2015 and has served me well so I hope that this will fix my problem.

Thanks,
John

zjohn13 · 2026-02-27 17:19:50

Katryne,

It's about a week since I uninstalled the sub-domain holding my test system and now all is looking good on my Main Domain.

I do not know why this worked but I'll just get on with it.

Thank you for taking the trouble to let me know about your similar problem with two domains.
Without that information I would still be pulling my hair out.

All the best,
John

Piwigo.org

Announcement

#1 2026-02-17 21:47:41

Rogue files filling server disk capacity

#2 2026-02-20 17:39:20

Re: Rogue files filling server disk capacity

#3 2026-02-20 19:19:52

Re: Rogue files filling server disk capacity

#4 2026-02-21 16:30:43

Re: Rogue files filling server disk capacity

#5 2026-02-21 17:45:17

Re: Rogue files filling server disk capacity

#6 2026-02-21 19:10:29

Re: Rogue files filling server disk capacity

#7 2026-02-21 20:11:16

Re: Rogue files filling server disk capacity

#8 2026-02-22 17:03:31

Re: Rogue files filling server disk capacity

#9 2026-02-24 13:12:34

Re: Rogue files filling server disk capacity

#10 2026-02-27 17:19:50

Re: Rogue files filling server disk capacity

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