WordPress doesn’t measure folder sizes live. Tools → Site Health → Info → Directories and Sizes shows sizes that were saved earlier (the dirsize_cache transient), and that saved copy is meant to last for years. WordPress only refreshes it when you upload a file, not when files are deleted. So after a cleanup, Site Health keeps showing the sizes from before.

cPanel reads the server’s disk directly, so it’s the number to trust. If cPanel shows that space was freed, the files are gone.

To refresh Site Health, delete the saved sizes, then reload the page:

• WP-CLI: wp transient delete dirsize_cache
• Or a plugin such as Database Cleaner: find and delete dirsize_cache.

Uploading any file to the Media Library also refreshes the uploads and WordPress folder sizes.

On very large sites, Site Health may run out of time while recalculating and show “Loading…” or nothing. That’s a WordPress limit, not a cleanup problem.