Security Compliance

WSUS Content Store drive is full and the WSUS Cleanup Wizard fails

If the drive storing the WSUS Content Store fills up, the WSUS Cleanup Wizard may fail. This article explains the cause and provides alternative solutions.

First published date

11/29/2018 10:49 PM

Last published date

7/14/2025 4:26 PM

Overview

If the drive storing the WSUS Content Store fills up, the WSUS Cleanup Wizard may fail. This article explains the cause and provides alternative WSUS solutions.

Product section

Patch Manager

Cause

If the WSUS Content Store is allowed to grow and fills the disk, failures will occur for various tasks. These tasks include synchronizing future updates from Microsoft Update and publishing new Third Party Updates from Patch Manager.  If the disk is sufficiently full, the WSUS Cleanup Wizard fails.

This failure occurs because the WSUS Cleanup Wizard writes to a log file without sufficient space. As a result, it is unable to complete.
 

Resolution

Expand the disk

If this is a VM, or you are otherwise able to do so, expand the disk that is full to allow the WSUS Cleanup Wizard to complete successfully.

  • Expanding the disk may be a solution if you believe that all of the present updates are necessary.
  • Expanding the disk by 5-10 GB should allow the WSUS Cleanup Wizard to complete the task, write to the log, and allow the cleanup to complete.


Manually clean up the WSUS Content Store

Reset the WSUS server. Full instructions are available here.