My Drive looks empty but my storage still shows as used
The Storage gauge in the sidebar still shows gigabytes used after you've deleted your files — sometimes more than your plan can even hold — and new downloads stall or won't start.
Two different measurements sit behind that number. Storage Breakdown on Home maps only the files you can see in My Drive. The gauge counts everything in your storage area: files tucked inside subfolders, data left behind by a torrent that was removed without its files, and torrent meta files and logs that My Drive never lists. So the gauge reading higher than the breakdown is expected — and it usually means there's something real still on the drive.
Less often the number itself is simply wrong — a sync fault or a file-ownership mismatch on the storage server can report space that isn't being used. That one's on us, not you, and no amount of deleting or restarting will move it.
Work down this list — it's ordered from most to least likely, and the last step is us:
On Home, the Storage panel shows X used of Y with a bar split by file type, and Storage Breakdown beside it turns that into cards — biggest category first, each with its size, its share as a percentage, and a file count. Click any card to jump into My Drive. If one category is holding 40 GB, this is where it says so in one look.
The breakdown is rebuilt every few minutes, so straight after a big delete it can trail the gauge for a moment. That's normal, not a fault.
An "empty" My Drive usually isn't. Open each folder rather than judging by the top level, and use the sort chip in the My Drive toolbar → Size so the heavy items float up. Downloads land in whichever folder they were sent to, not always the root.
This is the single most common answer — more often than not it's one or two forgotten folders still sitting there.
In Settings → Seedbox → Torrent settings, the Delete data with torrent switch decides whether removing a torrent also removes its files. If it's off, every torrent you've ever removed left its files behind — they're still in My Drive, still counting, and deleting the torrent again won't touch them. Delete those folders in My Drive directly.
Torrent settings are part of the paid plans — on Free the switch is visible but not editable.
avatar menu (top-right) → Settings → Drive → Maintenance → Clear storage → Clear…, then Clear everything on the Clear your storage? confirm. This is the only control that also removes the hidden torrent meta files and logs you can't see in My Drive — which is exactly what's left when the drive genuinely looks empty. On a paid plan your seedbox restarts as part of it. The wipe runs in the background, so give the gauge a minute or two to catch up.
Clear storage cannot be undone. It erases everything in My Drive — every file, every folder, plus torrent meta files and logs. There's no bin to fish anything back out of. Move what you want to keep off the seedbox first: in My Drive, right-click an item → Remote Upload… to send it to a connected cloud drive (see Remote drives), or just download it.
On the Free plan your usage is measured across your whole account, not only finished downloads — so the gauge and My Drive can look further apart there than on a paid plan. The Free allowance is 4 GB, and a new torrent that would push you past it can be removed automatically. Free seedboxes also run on a shared instance, so Clear storage empties your drive but doesn't restart anything.
Just upgraded from Free?
Free and paid plans measure your storage in different ways, and the changeover can leave a phantom figure behind — a few GB "used" on a brand-new plan with nothing in My Drive. It's a known one, it's ours, and it's a quick fix on our side. Don't bother restarting; skip to the section below.
Still used, with a genuinely empty drive?
Then stop — this is where it's ours to fix. If you've checked inside your folders, the breakdown shows nothing, you've run Clear storage, and the number still won't come down, don't keep restarting your seedbox. A restart doesn't move a wrong number, and people have lost days to it.
(A genuinely full drive really does stop a seedbox coming back — that's My seedbox is down or won't restart. But that's a real full drive, not a wrong number.)
One thing worth trying first: if the figure is wildly impossible — far more than your plan could ever hold — the dashboard now spots that and re-measures on its own. Refresh the dashboard once before you write in.
If it's still stuck, contact support and tell us three things: what the gauge says, that My Drive is empty, and your server name (in Settings → Seedbox as Server Name). We can read the real usage from the server, correct the figure, and get your downloads moving again.