How to Free Up Space in Google Drive and Gmail

If you’re like most people, you probably sweat a little every time you see your Gmail storage. If you’ve had your account for years, your storage is probably almost full, or is rapidly filling. Even if you purchased a larger plan, you might want to free up space and clear out some of the junk. Here are several ways to quickly get yourself some space back!

What Doesn’t Take up Storage Space

When you’re deleting files to free up your Google storage, there are a few things that you won’t have to worry about.

  • Files and drives that were shared with you. These only take up space on the owner’s Drive.
  • Google documents made in Drive, such as Docs and Sheets created before June 1, 2021. Any files created or edited after that date do take up storage space.
  • Photos and videos backed up with Storage Saver or Express quality before June 1, 2021.

How to Identify the Problem

You can easily see your storage breakdown on the Google Drive Storage page, which will show the breakdown by Google Drive, Gmail, Google Photos, and Family storage (how much storage is being used by family members who are on your plan). This is a great starting point for identifying which Google service is taking up the most space and that you should be focusing on. You’ll also likely be prompted to purchase a larger storage plan. If you’re desperate for space and don’t mind spending a few dollars on a plan, we found that Google Drive was quite reasonable compared to competitors, and offered some great features. It’s only $1.99 per month to upgrade from the free 15GB plan to the lowest paid plan of 100GB. That’s a pretty good upgrade for not a lot of cash.

Delete Large Email Attachments

Every email that you receive takes up space. Text-only emails are pretty small, but attachments can often be large. Gmail doesn’t let you attach files greater than 25MB, but those small files can add up over the years. The first line of defense is to go through your old emails and make sure you’ve downloaded all of the files you need, and then delete the emails you no longer need. Luckily, there is a way to filter emails with attachments so you don’t have to scroll though your entire inbox. In the search box, type in has:attachment and Gmail will search for and display every email that has an attachment. This should make it easier to run through and delete the ones you no longer need. Just make sure to go into your trash and empty it so the deletions get reflected in your storage.

Delete Your Google Drive Trash

When you delete a file in Google Drive, it goes to the trash, much like deleting a file from your computer. This means that the file being deleted won’t register in your storage capacity until it’s removed from the trash. Google Drive will automatically delete a file from the trash after 30 days, but you can also manually empty the trash. This can save a ton of space at once if you need it in a pinch, but it won’t free up space you weren’t going to get otherwise.

Delete Your Spam Folder

Your spam folder likely doesn’t take up too much space, especially since spam is deleted automatically after 30 days. However, you can quickly go into your spam folder and empty it to free up a bit of space.

Back Up Google Photos in Storage Saver Quality

If you back up your phone’s photos via Google Photos, you can choose original quality or space saver. If you care about having an accurate and high-quality version of your photos, you should use original quality. But if you don’t really mind, and want to save some space, you can back up your photos in lower quality.

Check Your Largest Files in Drive

It’s not super intuitive to sort your Drive by file size, but you certainly can. If you click on the storage symbol in the bottom left of the screen, you’ll see your files sorted by how much storage they use, with the largest files at the top. This is an easy way to identify that largest files you’re storing. If you want additional context you can click on the file and see the folder path at the bottom of the screen.

Use Local Solutions

If you only really use Google Drive to share files between multiple devices in your own home, you could stop using Drive altogether and go for a local solution such as a NAS. We talk a bit more about this option in our article Ways to Back Up Photos Automatically. A NAS (network-attached storage) is a great way to share files easily between your home devices. However, Google Drive is perfect for external backups, sharing files with others, and taking files with you on the go! It all comes down to how you want to access and use your files.

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