Have you ever received a dreaded email from Google warning you that you’re running out of storage space? If you’re a frequent user of Gmail and other Google products, this might be a familiar sight.
Your first thought might be, ‘Do I need to delete emails individually to get under the limit?’. That’s one way to do it but it isn’t the best or easiest task. If you haven’t deleted emails in quite some time you may have over 100,000 emails taking up valuable storage space.
And those emails might also include attachments that take up even more space than you realize.
But don’t worry, there are simple steps you can take to reclaim your storage space and keep your account running smoothly.
Google provides 15 GB of free storage across Gmail, Google Drive, and Google Photos. However, if you exceed this limit, you may be blocked from sending or receiving emails, which can be a major inconvenience. Consider these more efficient methods before you resort to deleting thousands of emails one by one.
How to Free Up Google Storage
- Check your storage usage: Scroll to the bottom of your Gmail inbox to see how much space you’re currently using.
- Identify storage hogs: Visit myaccount.google.com to view a breakdown of your storage usage by product.
- Back up your data to a computer if needed: You don’t want to accidentally delete emails, attachments, and videos you want to save. Deleting them means they are lost forever.
- Delete large files: Google often recommends large files for deletion, such as unsupported videos. Removing these can free up significant space.
- Target emails with large attachments: Empty your Gmail trash folder and search for emails with large attachments. This alone might free up well over a GB of storage.
- Clean up Google Drive: Delete unnecessary files, especially large attachments and GIFs.
- Tackle old emails: Use the advanced search feature in Gmail to find and delete emails older than a year, especially in the Promotions folder which is just a step above junk mail. Take a look in the Promotions folder and click to the end. If you’re like me you’ll find there are tens of thousands of unneeded emails taking up storage space.
- Consider upgrading: If you frequently back up photos to Google Photos, paying $2 a month for 100 GB of extra storage might be a worthwhile investment.
Tips for Easy Cleanup
- Use a computer for easier management of your files and emails.
- Regularly review and delete unnecessary files and emails.
- Consider using alternative storage options for large files, such as external hard drives or cloud storage services.
By following these steps, you can effectively manage your Google storage and avoid the hassle of running out of space. Remember, a little cleanup can go a long way in keeping your Google account organized and efficient.