7 tips to free up space in Google Drive

Google Drive's 15GB of free storage is generous compared to many competitors, but it can quickly run out if you're not careful. Upgrading your storage plan isn't your only option, though. With just a few simple steps, you can free up space on your Google Drive without losing important files.

1. Identify and delete large files

One of the quickest ways to free up space in Google Drive is to locate and delete any large files, photos, and videos that you no longer need. These files can include 4K videos, high-resolution photos, or ZIP files that are taking up gigabytes (GB) of storage.

Google Drive's Storage menu makes it easy to quickly identify large files. Here's what to do:

1. Open Google Drive in your favorite web browser.
2. Click on the Storage option in the left pane.
3. All of your Google Drive files will be sorted by size, with the largest files at the top. Scroll through the files to select the ones you don't need, click the three-dot icon at the top, and select Move to bin .
4. Once deleted, go to the Bin tab and click on the Empty bin option .

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2. Delete emails with large attachments

Files that appear in Google Drive aren't the only culprits; your Gmail inbox can also be the culprit. Emails and attachments stored in Gmail count toward your total Google account storage. Deleting unnecessary emails, especially those with large attachments, can help free up space without incurring additional storage costs.

To free up storage space on your Gmail account, go to Gmail and type has:attachment larger:10M into the search bar. This will list all emails with attachments larger than 10MB.

Go through your list and delete emails you no longer need, such as old conversations, forwarded attachments, or project files you've saved elsewhere. When you're done, be sure to empty your Trash folder to permanently delete these emails and reclaim your storage space.

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3. Compress photos and videos in Google Photos

Similar to Gmail, your Google Photos storage also contributes to your total Google Drive storage. Deleting media files from Google Photos is an effective solution to this problem. However, if you don't want to lose those precious memories, you can download your entire Google Photos data and create an offline backup.

Additionally, you can take advantage of Google Photos' Storage Saver option, which compresses photos and videos without significantly reducing their quality. Doing so will allow Google Photos to downsize photos to 16MP and resize videos to 1080p if they're higher resolution. This alone can free up a significant amount of storage space, especially if Google Photos is taking up a large portion of your Google account's storage.

To compress photos and videos stored in Google Photos:

1. Open the Google Photos website on your computer and click the gear icon at the top.
2. Select the Storage saver option and click on the Manage storage option .
3. Scroll down to Recover storage and click Learn more .
4. Check the checkbox and click Compress existing photos and videos to confirm.

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4. Delete outdated phone backups

If you've been using Google Drive to back up your Android phone for a while, outdated backups may be taking up some of your storage space. Deleting old, unnecessary backups can help free up some of that space. Here's how.

1. Open Google Drive on your computer and click the Storage tab in the left pane.
2. Click Backups in the upper right corner to see all backups associated with your Google account.
3. Browse through your list of backups and find any that are outdated or unnecessary. Select the backup you want to delete and click the trash can icon at the top of the page.

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5. Clean up app and game data stored in Drive

An often overlooked source of storage consumption in Google Drive is the data stored by the apps and games you use over time. Many apps, especially games, save their data to your Google Drive. This can include saved game files, app settings, and other data that may not be useful to you.

Luckily, Google Drive makes it easy to delete unwanted data stored by these apps and games. Here are the steps you need to take.

1. Open Google Drive on your computer, click the gear icon in the upper right corner and select Settings .
2. Select the Manage apps tab .
3. Locate any app or game data you don't need. Click the Options button next to it and select Delete hidden app data .
4. Press Delete to confirm.
5. Repeat the above steps for each app and game data you want to delete.

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6. Exclude videos from WhatsApp backup

Google used to not count WhatsApp backups against your Google Drive storage quota, but that no longer applies. This means that if you use WhatsApp on a daily basis, especially to send and receive media like videos, photos, and audio messages, backups can quickly eat up your Google Drive storage.

One way to reduce the impact on storage is to exclude videos from your WhatsApp backup. Here's how to do it.

1. Open WhatsApp on your phone, tap the three-dot icon in the top-right corner and select Settings .
2. Go to Chats > Chat backup .
3. Turn off the Include videos toggle .

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By excluding videos from your WhatsApp backup, you can keep your backup size smaller and ensure your Google Drive storage is used more efficiently. If you want to keep important videos, you can manually save them to Google Photos or another cloud service.

7. Use Storage Manager's cleanup suggestions

Even after you've made the effort to delete large files and old backups, your Google Drive storage will likely fill up again over time. Eventually, this will result in that annoying banner urging you to upgrade to a paid plan. Fortunately, Google Drive offers a handy tool called Storage Manager, which offers cleaning suggestions to help you manage your storage and prevent unnecessary storage buildup.

To access it, go to the Storage menu in Google Drive and click the Clean up space option . From there, you can review recommended items to delete, such as junk emails, files in the trash, and more. You can also clean up specific services, like Gmail or Google Photos, to target areas that are taking up more space.

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Managing your Google Drive storage may seem like a complicated task, but with the tips mentioned above, you can easily reclaim a significant amount of space and avoid paying extra for storage.

Jessica Tanner

Update 31 December 2024