I have about 20gb of space left and rather than upgrading my AWS Lightsail instance to the next level up I would rather just add an attached drive. I have done this and mounted it but I am unsure of what I need to do for Discourse to use it for either future uploads (hey wouldn’t that be nice) or move the entire folder over to the new drive and have it access it there. Any pointers would be appreciated.

Well, the same syntax that they use to have /var/discourse/shared/standalone map to /shared. But I think you want a bit more than the syntax. I think you’re more interested in the astral semantics, and I can’t remember exactly all the pieces, especially on my phone.

In broad strokes, you can rsync /var/discourse/shared/standalone/uploads to the new drive and then add another line in the app.yml to direct /shared/uploads to the new path.

@Jim_Starkweather were you able to resolve your issue? If @pfaffman’s post helped, please give him a pat on the back for it by marking it as the solution. (look for the box with the checkmark in it on the post menu)

Is there a guide for moving /uploads to new attached disk drive?

Product Support

nathank (Nathan Kershaw) October 9, 2025, 3:36pm 7

Thanks Jay, very helpful! What syntax should one use in app.yml to achieve that?

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Is there a guide for moving /uploads to new attached disk drive?

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