diff --git a/internetarchive/cli/ia_upload.py b/internetarchive/cli/ia_upload.py
index aeaa0e2f..283fd03e 100644
--- a/internetarchive/cli/ia_upload.py
+++ b/internetarchive/cli/ia_upload.py
@@ -61,12 +61,13 @@
 
 import six
 from docopt import docopt, printable_usage
-from requests.exceptions import HTTPError
+from requests.exceptions import HTTPError, ConnectionError
 from schema import Schema, Use, Or, And, SchemaError
 
 from internetarchive.cli.argparser import get_args_dict, convert_str_list_to_unicode
 from internetarchive.session import ArchiveSession
 from internetarchive.utils import validate_ia_identifier, get_s3_xml_text
+from internetarchive import get_item
 
 # Only import backports.csv for Python2 (in support of FreeBSD port).
 PY2 = sys.version_info[0] == 2
@@ -87,6 +88,10 @@ def _upload_files(item, files, upload_kwargs, prev_identifier=None, archive_sess
         responses += response
     except HTTPError as exc:
         responses += [exc.response]
+    except ConnectionError as exc:
+        print("Received ConnectionError while uploading. If this happens consistently,",
+              " the item you're uploading to might be full. Run --status-check!")
+        raise
     finally:
         # Debug mode.
         if upload_kwargs['debug']:
@@ -176,6 +181,10 @@ def main(argv, session):
                   'Expect 503 SlowDown errors.'.format(args['<identifier>']),
                   file=sys.stderr)
             sys.exit(1)
+        elif get_item('{0}'.format(args['<identifier>'])).item_size >= 1099511627776:
+            print('warning: {0} is full and cannot accept uploads.'.format(args['<identifier>']),
+                  file=sys.stderr)
+            sys.exit(1)
         else:
             print('success: {0} is accepting requests.'.format(args['<identifier>']))
             sys.exit()