Want to save money on digital storage? Try these Google Drive tricks

According to Google partner Google Drive, Google’s cloud storage service, there are more than 2 billion monthly active users. Patron Saint. If you’re one of those people, you may know that your account only comes with 15GB of free space to use between your emails, photos, videos, and other digital documents. That storage can fill up quickly, especially if you’ve been taking a lot of photos this summer.

If you run out of storage space, you’ll see a message asking you to upgrade to a Google One plan, but you don’t have to buy digital storage. Here are a few tricks to easily free up space in your digital filing cabinet, for free.

We recommend trying these tips on your desktop rather than a mobile device, as it will be easier to sort and manage files. We’ll walk you through both processes if you only have access to a mobile device.

1. Find and delete large files first

If you keep most of your items in Google Drive and Gmail, you can free up space by sorting each service by file size and deleting just one or two large files instead of a few dozen smaller items. Deleting one or two videos that are taking up several megabytes of space is easier than sorting through hundreds of old documents of similar file size to determine which ones can be deleted.

Delete files by size in Google Drive

Here’s how to delete files from your desktop based on size.

1. Sign in to your Google Drive account.
2. Click Storage in the menu on the left side of the screen.
3. The Storage page should list your files from largest to smallest, but if it doesn’t, click Used storage on the right side of the screen. The files should now be sorted from largest to smallest.
4. Click on the large files you want to delete to select them. You can select multiple files by clicking Shift key on your keyboard.
5. After selecting the files you want to delete, click the trash can that appears at the top of the screen or click and drag large files to the trash can. Waste on the left side of the screen.

You’re not done yet if the items in the Waste. Click on that Waste on the left side of the screen to go to the Waste menu. Then click on Empty trash can on the right side of the screen and then click Forever empty.

You can also delete files by size on your mobile device. Here’s how.

1. Open your Google Drive app and log in to your account.
2. Crane Files in the lower right corner of the screen.
3. Crane Name below My motivation at the top of the screen.
4. Crane Used storage. This will sort your files from largest to smallest. You can select My motivation and then Used storage to view your files from smallest to largest.
5. Tap the three dots (…) next to the item you want to delete.
6. Crane To delete Than Move to trash.

Google says in the app that items in your Waste are automatically deleted for good after 30 days. If you want to speed up the process and empty your trash now, here’s how.

1. Tap the hamburger icon (three stacked lines) in the top left corner of the screen next to Search in Drive.
2. Crane Waste.
3. Tap the three dots (…) in the top right corner of the screen.
4. Crane Empty trash can.

Delete files by size in Gmail

You can also delete your files by size in Gmail. Here’s how to do it on desktop.

1. Sign in to your Gmail account.
2. Type has:attachment larger:10MB in the search bar and press Search Query. This will show you all emails with attachments larger than 10 MB, from largest to smallest. You can use this format to filter by other file sizes, not just 10 MB files.
3. Select the boxes to the left of each email message you want to delete, then click Waste icon at the top of your screen. It should be under Conversations.
4. Click Waste on the left side of the screento go to the Trash menu. If you don’t see it WasteClick More And Waste should be in the extended menu.
5. Click Empty the trash now at the top of the screen.

You can also delete files in the Gmail app. Here’s how.

1. Open your Gmail app and log in to your account.
2. Type has:attachment larger:10MB in the search bar and press Search Query. This will show you all emails with attachments larger than 10 MB, from largest to smallest. You can use this format to filter for files of any size, not just 10 MB files.
3. Tap the email address you want to delete.
4. Tap the trash can icon at the top of your screen.
5. Crane < in the top left corner of your screen.
6. Tap the hamburger icon in the top left corner of the screen next to Search in email.
7. Crane Waste.
8. Crane Empty the trash now.

Please note that once a file is transferred to Wasteit will be automatically deleted after 30 days.

2. Empty your Gmail spam folder

It’s easy to forget to empty your spam folder, and it can take up unnecessary data in your Gmail account. Emptying your spam folder — and your social or promotions folders — is another way to free up space.

Here’s how to empty the spam folder on your desktop.

1. Sign in to your Gmail account.
2. Once you are logged in, click Spam on the left side of the screen. If you don’t see SpamClick More And Spam should be in the extended menu.
3. Click in your spam folder Delete all spam messages now.
4. Click OK in the pop-up.

And this is how you empty your spam folder in the mobile app.

1. Open the Gmail app and sign in to your account.
2. Tap the hamburger icon in the top left corner of the screen next to Search in email.
3. Crane Spam.
4. Crane Delete all spam messages now or Please empty your spam now.

3. Delete old or duplicate photos in Google Photos

Google is also adding Google Photos to the 15GB of free storage it gives its users. Photos and videos can take up more space than text files, especially higher-quality files, so it’s a good idea to go through and delete old and duplicate photos and videos to free up space.

There’s no option to sort your photos and videos from largest to smallest like there is in Google Drive and Gmail, so you’ll have to manually delete items. You can check how much space a file is taking up by selecting it and clicking the “i” for information in the top menu.

Here’s how to delete photos and videos from Google Photos on your desktop.

1. Open and log in Google Photos.
2. Hover your mouse over the photos and videos you want to delete and click the gray checkmark in the upper left corner of the photo or video. Do this with as many photos and videos as you want.
3. Click the trash can icon in the top right corner of the screen.
4. Click Move to trash.
5. Click Waste on the left side of the screen.
6. Click Empty trash can in the top right corner of your screen.
7. Click Empty trash can one more time, and you’re done.

Here’s how to delete photos and videos from the Google Photos mobile app.

A note for Apple users: If your Gmail is linked to your iCloud account, the two digital storage spaces can also be linked. This means that when you Backup and synchronization feature on Google Photos, all of your local photos on your iPhone will appear on Google Photos. If you delete a photo on Google Photos, the local photo on your iPhone will also be deleted. When the local photo is deleted, it will not appear on iCloud. You can tell if this is you when you try to delete an image on Google Photos; a pop-up window will let you know that you are about to delete from both places.

1. Open Google Photos and sign in.
2. Tap the photo or video you want to delete.
3. Tap the trash can icon in the bottom right corner of the screen.
4. Crane To delete.
5. Crane Library in the lower right corner of the screen.
6. Crane Waste.
7. Tap the three dots (…) in the top right corner of the screen.
8. Crane Empty trash can.
9. Crane To delete.

If you don’t click or tap Empty trash can On both desktop and mobile, the photos and videos you delete will be automatically deleted after 60 days.

Bonus tip: You can reduce the file size of some photos and videos in Google Photos. This will give you some space back, but it will reduce the quality of your media. You can learn more about this at Google Support Here.

4. When all else fails, download your files to your desktop

If you’re still running low on storage and can’t part with items from your Google Drive, Gmail, or Google Photos, you can download your items and save them directly to your computer.

Here’s how to download and save all of your Google files to another hard drive.

1. Open your Google Drive or Google Photos account on your desktop and sign in.
2. Select the files or photos you want to download.
3. Click on the three stacked dots in the top right corner of your screen.
4. Click DownloadPlease note that Gmail downloads messages as an .eml file.
5. Once the items have been downloaded and moved to your hard drive, you can delete them from your account and empty your trash bins.

You can download emails from Gmail in much the same way, but you will have to download your emails one by one. While this makes downloading your emails more cumbersome, it is still possible. Here’s how to download your emails from Gmail.

1. Open your Gmail account on your desktop and log in.
2. Click on the email you want to download.
3. Click on the three stacked dots in the top right corner of your screen.
4. Click Download. Your emails will be downloaded as an .eml file.
5. Once your emails have been downloaded and moved to your hard drive, you can delete them from your account and empty your trash.

For more information, see these 10 Gmail tips and tools, 9 Google Drive Features You May Have Missed And Five Google Photos Features You Can Try Right Now.