# Can I delete the original uploads?
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/can-i-delete-the-original-uploads/110455
**Category:** Support
**Created:** [March 1, 2019, 7:05pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/can-i-delete-the-original-uploads/110455 "2019-03-01T19:05:54Z")
**Posts on this page:** 8
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@sedget](https://meta.discourse.org/u/sedget)
#### Post date: [March 1, 2019, 7:05pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/can-i-delete-the-original-uploads/110455/1 "2019-03-01T19:05:54Z")
hello,
I need space and i want to know if i can delete original in upload dir?
I’m not asking for orphan files I’m asking if original guet an optimized version and so that’s allow me to delete them?
```
/var/discourse/shared/standalone/uploads/default# du -h --max-depth=1
3.9G ./original
5.9G ./optimized
```
---
### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [March 1, 2019, 10:55pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/can-i-delete-the-original-uploads/110455/2 "2019-03-01T22:55:29Z")
I think you can delete the optimized, not the original. Because the optimized versions are dynamically created from the originals. Is that correct @sam?
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### Author:  [@sam](https://meta.discourse.org/u/sam)
#### Post date: [March 1, 2019, 11:07pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/can-i-delete-the-original-uploads/110455/3 "2019-03-01T23:07:24Z")
You can delete optimized but images will look broken on all posts till you run a full rebake, you may also have to fiddle with the table
Not recommended
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### Author:  [@zogstrip](https://meta.discourse.org/u/zogstrip)
#### Post date: [March 5, 2019, 11:05am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/can-i-delete-the-original-uploads/110455/4 "2019-03-05T11:05:41Z")
FYI, what we call optimized images are more “optimized thumbnails” than optimized versions of the original images.
Like @sam said, you’ll always need the originals to generate the thumbnails.
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### Author:  [@sedget](https://meta.discourse.org/u/sedget)
#### Post date: [March 5, 2019, 1:20pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/can-i-delete-the-original-uploads/110455/5 "2019-03-05T13:20:48Z")
Hello, i understood. Now i have to wait for change in originals management like an option to merge originals and optimized to have my directories less fat :wink:
9.8G0 of space for only 3.9 Go originals .
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### Author:  [@supermathie](https://meta.discourse.org/u/supermathie)
#### Post date: [March 5, 2019, 2:47pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/can-i-delete-the-original-uploads/110455/6 "2019-03-05T14:47:10Z")
> [@sedget](#):
>
> 9.8GO of space for only 3.9 GO originals .
This is a trade-off we have chosen - higher storage space on the server means we can pick the best image to send to the client, saving bandwidth and memory.
Resizing on the fly takes far too much CPU to be viable, whereas disk space is relatively cheap.
---
### Author:  [@system](https://meta.discourse.org/u/system)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2022, 1:23pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/can-i-delete-the-original-uploads/110455/7 "2022-04-13T13:23:38Z")
---
### Author:  [@JammyDodger](https://meta.discourse.org/u/JammyDodger)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2022, 1:25pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/can-i-delete-the-original-uploads/110455/8 "2022-04-13T13:25:30Z")