There is insufficient system capacity for updates. What can I do?

Symptoms

You receive an insufficient storage error while updating DSM or the firmware of your Synology drives.

Notes:

The available space shown in Storage Manager is not the available space in the system partition.

Resolution

You are seeing this error because your system does not have sufficient capacity to unzip and install update files in the system partition. Please check the following list before attempting to update DSM or the firmware of your Synology drives again.

Store your data in the shared folders only

The output from terminal commands (e.g., creating files or folders within the system partition such as in /root or /opt, or executing your own binary files/scripts) may fill up the system partition and result in update failure. Please move such data to the shared folders and only store your data and command output inside them.

Oversized personal wallpaper

Personal wallpapers are stored in the system partition of devices with DSM 6.2 and earlier versions. If the wallpapers are too large, they can take up a certain amount of storage capacity even after being zipped. To clear the wallpapers from storage:

Sign in to DSM.
Click the person-shaped icon on the upper-right corner.
Go to Personal > Desktop > Customize wallpaper > Select image > My Images > My Previous Images, and click Clear All.

Detailed system log

System logs will also take up storage capacity; unless there are special debugging needs, you can turn off unneeded system logging.

Launch Support Center.
Go to Support Services > System Log Tools.
For DSM 6.2 and earlier: Unselect Log more detailed information for diagnosis.
For DSM 7.0 and later: Unselect Log system status periodically.
Click Apply.

Third-party packages

Third-party packages not published or verified by Synology may affect system settings and cause unexpected issues. However, simply removing them from your Synology device may not entirely solve this issue. Please refer to this article to reset your Synology device and reinstall DSM.

LogicalDoc package

The log files of this package will take up system storage. Uninstall the package from the Package Center if you are not using it.

Media Server package

This package's Enable DMA communication log for diagnostic purpose feature takes up system space. To disable this option:

Launch Media Server.
Go to General Settings > Diagnose.
Unselect Enable DMA communication log for diagnostic purpose.
Click Clear to clear logs and release system space.

Synology High Availability package

More system capacity is required when performing updates on devices with DSM 6.2.3 and earlier versions. Please provide your support identification key, administrator account, and password to Synology Technical Support for further assistance.

Restart your NAS

If your DSM has been running for some time, restarting your NAS at an appropriate time will free up system resources that are being used. This will also free up more resources for updating DSM or the firmware of your Synology drives.

Contact technical support

If the issue persists after trying the methods above, please contact Synology Technical Support for further diagnosis.

Further reading

Frequently asked questions about DSM updates

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