How to Solve the Storage Issue on Google and Free Up Space

Google Drive allows you to store up to 15GB of files for free, but if you're running low on space, it's time to take action.

To start, check your Google Drive storage usage by going to the Google Drive website and clicking on the gear icon in the top right corner. This will show you how much space you've used and what's taking up the most space.

If you're finding that your Google Drive storage is full, one of the first things you can do is delete files you no longer need. You can do this by selecting the files you want to delete and clicking the "Trash" button.

By regularly cleaning out your Google Drive storage, you can free up space and avoid running out of room for your important files.

If this caught your attention, see: How to Keep Your Onedrive from Running Out of Storage

Google gives 15 GB of free storage for every account, which seems to be a great deal compared with OneDrive's 5 GB and Dropbox's 2 GB. But the problem is that the space includes all content connected to Google Drive, Gmail, and Google Photos.

This means you need to consider all the files, emails, and photos stored across these services when trying to free up space.

Google Drive storage includes all content connected to Google Drive, Gmail, and Google Photos, so you'll need to think about all these services when trying to free up space.

Discover more: Storage Space on Google Photos

Files in Google Drive, such as PDFs, images, and videos, take up storage space. Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Jamboard files also occupy space since June 1, 2021.

Photos and videos you backed up in Google Photos in Original quality use up storage space. This includes high-quality photos and videos backed up after June 1, 2021, which are now named Storage saver.

Large files can quickly consume your storage space. Using the search bar in Google Drive can help you find and identify these files, and you can then decide whether to delete, download, or move them to another location.

Large files can quickly eat up your storage space, so it's essential to check for them regularly. Google Drive stores files, including PDFs, images, and videos, which count against your space.

You can use the search bar in Google Drive to find large files. Google Drive stores Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Jamboard files, which share the space since June 1, 2021.

Identifying large files is a great place to start when trying to free up space on Google Drive. Photos and videos you backed up in Google Photos in Original quality also take up storage space.

Once you've located large files, you can decide whether to delete, download, or move them to another location. High quality photos and videos backed up to Google Photos after June 1, 2021, also count against your space.

Google gives 15 GB of free storage for every account, which seems like a great deal, but it can fill up quickly. You can use this space to store files, photos, and videos, but be mindful of what's taking up space.

Identify files you no longer need or use to free up space on Google Drive. Start by checking the "Storage" section in Google Drive settings to see which files are taking up the most space.

Large files can quickly eat up your storage space, so use the search bar in Google Drive to find and identify them. Once located, you can decide whether to delete, download, or move them to another location.

Delete or move unnecessary files to your local storage or an external drive to free up space on Google Drive. You can use the "Remove" option to delete a single file or a bunch of items you want to delete.

Emptying the drive trash regularly can also help work out Google Drive storage full. To do this, navigate to Google Drive, click the Trash button, and select "Delete forever" from the drop-down menu.

You can remove hidden data from third-party apps by deleting it. Click Manage Apps, then select the app with hidden data and tap Delete hidden app data.

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To access hidden data, you'll need to click the Options button next to the app. This will allow you to view and delete any unnecessary files.

If you use Google Drive to back up third-party app documents, you may find hidden data. In this case, deleting it can help free up storage space.

If this caught your attention, see: What Is Azure Storage

If you use Google Drive to backup third-party application documents, they may sometimes have hidden data. You can remove it with just a couple of clicks.

To do this, click Manage Apps and find the app with hidden data. Click the Options button next to it and tap Delete hidden app data.

This simple step can help free up space in your Google account.

You might be surprised at how quickly photos and videos can take up space on your Google Drive account. Google Photos offers a solution to this problem with free unlimited storage for high-quality photos and videos, which won't count towards your Google Drive quota.

To take advantage of this feature, you can set up your Android phone to sync with Google Photos, which can help free up space on your Google Drive account.

Google Photos also provides a quota management tool that gives you a breakdown of what's taking up space, so you can see exactly where you can make some cuts.

Reviewing your Large photos & videos, Screenshots, and Blurry photos can help you identify what's taking up space and what you can safely delete.

Consider downloading older photos to your computer and deleting them from Google Photos if you don't need them in the cloud.

Here are some tips for reviewing your photos and videos:

You can backup your Google Drive files to other clouds like OneDrive, Dropbox, and more, using a professional cloud backup service like CBackup. This way, you can free up space in Google Drive without losing any data.

Take a look at this: Azure Storage for Backups

CBackup allows you to migrate data from one cloud drive to another without downloading and re-uploading, and it even provides auto backup between clouds to save you time and effort.

To backup Google Drive files to OneDrive, for example, you'll need to add both Google Drive and OneDrive to CBackup, and then follow the steps to backup from Google Drive to OneDrive.

If you prefer not to change the resolutions of your backed-up photos or delete any files in Google Drive, you can use CBackup to backup Google Drive files to other clouds, and then delete data in Google Drive to free up space.

You can also use Google Takeout to backup your Google account, which can send files directly to Dropbox, Microsoft OneDrive, or Box, or you can download everything to your own hard drive.

Here are some free cloud backup services that can help you transfer files between cloud drives and combine cloud storage to gain free unlimited space:

Note: Be sure to check the pricing details for each service, as some may charge per GiB per month.

To start freeing up space on your Google Drive, head to the Storage manager, where you'll find categories like Files in Trash, Spam emails, Unsupported videos, and Large photos and videos that can take up a lot of space.

You can click Review under any category to see what's in there and select items to delete or move to trash. It's also a good idea to empty the trash once you've moved items from the suggested categories.

If you're looking for a more specific approach, you can click into Google Photos, Gmail, or Google Drive under Clean up by service and use filters to make your decisions.

To get started, you'll need to sign in to the CBackup app on your PC, which offers a free account creation option.

Here are 6 effective ways to solve the Google Drive storage full issue:

1. Compress photos storage

2. Clear your Gmail

3. Delete useless or large files

4. Empty Drive Trash

5. Delete hidden app data

6. Backup files from Google Drive to another cloud

By following these steps, you can effectively manage your Google Drive storage and resolve the full storage error.

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If you consistently find yourself running out of space on Google Drive, consider upgrading to a higher storage plan. Google offers various paid storage plans that provide additional space to accommodate your needs.

You can upgrade your storage plan by subscribing to Google One, which offers a range of storage plans, including 100GB, 200GB, and 2TB options. The prices for these plans are as follows: 100GB for $2 per month or $20 annually, 200GB for $3 per month or $30 annually, and 2TB for $10 per month or $100 annually.

To free up space on your Google Drive, you can use the Storage manager. This tool allows you to clean up space in your account by deleting files in the Trash, Spam emails, Unsupported videos, and Large photos and videos categories.

Here's a step-by-step guide to using the Storage manager:

Alternatively, you can click into Google Photos, Gmail, or Google Drive under Clean up by service, and use the filters to make your decisions.

If you're a Google Workspace Individual account user, you must subscribe to Google One to increase your storage space. This is because a Workspace Individual account is simply an upgraded personal account.

Google gives 15 GB of free storage for every account, which is shared across Google Drive, Gmail, and Google Photos. This means that if you use the Google Photos backup service, your storage space can fill up quickly.

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You can quickly free up space on Google Drive by deleting hidden app data. Click Manage Apps and select the app with hidden data to delete it.

To clear Google Drive storage, click the Storage button in the sidebar to view all your files, sorted by size. Delete any unnecessary files by right-clicking and selecting Move to trash. Once you're done, click Trash in the sidebar and then Empty trash in the top-right corner.

Exporting emails before deleting them is a good idea, especially if you need to reference them later. Mailmeteor's Bulk-Export functionality can help you achieve this.

Clearing out old files and emails can be a real space-saver, trust me. I've found myself deleting old videos and emails that I no longer needed, and it's amazing how much space I've freed up.

To clear Google Drive storage, start by clicking the Storage button in the sidebar, which will show you every file in your drive with the biggest at the top. If you see any files you don't care about, delete them.

You can select multiple items at once using the Shift key, or use the command or Ctrl key to select multiple items that aren't next to each other. Then, right-click and select Move to trash.

Once you're done moving everything you don't want to the trash, click Trash in the sidebar and then click Empty trash in the top-right. This will permanently delete the files and free up space on your Google Drive.

To clear Gmail storage, it's a bit harder to find the biggest files, but you can search for emails with attachments larger than 10MB using the search term "has:attachment larger:10MB". This will show you every email that's larger than 10MB.

You can then filter by file type and delete the emails you no longer need. If you want to sort your entire archive by file size, consider using a third-party email client like Thunderbird or Mac Mail.

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To clear Gmail, you can start by searching for large emails. Searching for emails with attachments larger than 10MB using the command "has:attachment larger:10MB" is a good place to start.

This will show you every email that's larger than 10MB, and you can change this number to be as high as you want. You can then sort your emails by size using an IMAP email client like Thunderbird or Mac Mail.

Using an IMAP email client allows you to sort your entire archive by file size, making it easier to find and delete large emails. I've found that deleting large emails like birthday threads with large GIFs can free up a lot of space quickly.

If you have emails you want to keep for reference but don't need them in your Gmail storage, export them using Mailmeteor's Bulk-Export functionality. This way, you'll have a backup in case you need to reference the email later.

Take a look at this: Free Onedrive Storage Limit

Emptying the trash and spam folders can also free up some space in Gmail. You can do this manually or use a third-party email client to help you sort and delete large emails.

Here are some key features that may be affected when your Gmail storage is full:

If you need more storage, you can purchase additional storage for your Gmail by subscribing to a Google One membership. Google One offers a range of storage plans that you can choose from.

If you're running low on storage space in Google Photos, it's time to clear out some photos. Google Photos used to offer unlimited storage, but that's no longer the case.

Many Android phones are set up to sync with Google Photos, which can fill up your account quickly. Reviewing your Google Photos quota management tool will give you a breakdown of what's taking up space and how much time you have before you run out of storage.

Large photos and videos are often the biggest space hogs, so start by reviewing those. Delete any duplicates or videos you'll never watch.

Screenshots are another common culprit, taking up unnecessary space. If you take screenshots for quick laughs, consider deleting them or archiving them on your computer.

Blurry photos are also fair game for deletion. If it's not a dog, it's probably safe to delete.

Consider downloading older photos to your computer and deleting them from Google Photos. Not everything needs to be in the cloud, after all. Just make sure you have a backup.

Here are some steps to clear out your Google Photos storage: