Free Up Google Account Storage: A Complete Guide
Google Account Storage: A Unified System
Google accounts currently operate with a consolidated storage allocation. Each user is provided with 15 GB of free storage, distributed across services like Gmail, Google Drive, and Google Photos.
Importantly, not all file types contribute to the consumption of this storage quota.
Files Exempt from Storage Limits
Certain categories of files are excluded from counting towards your overall 15 GB limit. This allows for greater flexibility in how you utilize Google’s services.
The implementation of a shared storage pool has rendered previous methods for storing personal files within Gmail obsolete.
Optimizing Your Google Storage
With the unified storage system, you can effectively leverage the full capacity of your Gmail account for both email correspondence and the storage of files and photographs.
This streamlined approach simplifies storage management and eliminates the need for complex workarounds.
- Gmail: Email messages and attachments.
- Google Drive: Documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and other files.
- Google Photos: Images and videos.
Understanding Your Google Storage
The total storage capacity associated with your Google account can be readily checked through Google Drive’s storage webpage.
This platform provides a detailed breakdown of storage consumption across various Google services, including Gmail, Google Drive, and Google Photos.
The presented overview serves as a valuable starting point, indicating which service requires attention for potential space reclamation.
Visualizing Storage Usage
A graphical representation of your storage allocation is available, offering a quick assessment of how each service contributes to your overall usage.
This visualization aids in identifying areas where significant amounts of storage are being utilized.
Managing Your Gmail Storage Capacity
The vast majority of data within your Gmail account utilizes storage space. While email attachments are often a primary contributor to this consumption, the emails themselves also require storage. Emails lacking attachments represent relatively small amounts of data individually.
However, a large volume of such messages can collectively occupy a significant portion of your allocated storage.
Related: Methods for Increasing Gmail Space: 5 Techniques to Recover Storage
Gmail doesn't inherently provide tools for storage management. Specifically, there isn't a built-in function to determine the storage footprint of individual messages directly within the Gmail interface.
We have previously detailed several strategies for optimizing Gmail storage, ranging from targeted searches for emails containing attachments to leveraging an IMAP client, such as Thunderbird, which offers precise storage size information for each email.
(Note: Gmail now supports searching by message size. Utilizing the search operator size:5m will display all emails exceeding 5 MB in size. However, determining the size of entire email threads and sorting them accordingly still necessitates a third-party application like Thunderbird.)
It’s important to remember that emails residing in your trash folder continue to consume storage. Gmail automatically purges the trash contents after a 30-day period, but immediate emptying is recommended if you require the space urgently.
Transforming Files for Google Docs
Google Drive functions in two primary capacities. It serves as the central repository for all files created within Google Docs. Additionally, it operates as a cloud-based file storage solution, similar to Dropbox.
Understanding this dual role is crucial for managing your storage allocation.
- Documents natively created in Google Docs formats – including Documents, Spreadsheets, Presentations, Drawings, and Forms – do not consume any storage space. Users are able to create and store an unlimited number of these file types.
- Conversely, files in other formats – such as PDFs, images, and Microsoft Word documents – will utilize your allocated Google Drive storage.
Should you possess documents originating from Microsoft Office or OpenOffice suites, converting them to the Google Docs format can effectively conserve storage space. This conversion is easily initiated by right-clicking the file within your Google Drive.
From the context menu, select "Open with" and then choose the Google Docs application.
Google Docs will then generate a new version of the file in its native format, after which the original file can be deleted.
Furthermore, you can activate the setting "Convert uploaded files to Google Docs format" within the upload window. This will automatically convert newly uploaded documents. However, be aware that some complex formatting details may be lost during this automated process.
Identifying Large Files in Google Drive by Size
If you need to identify which files are utilizing the most storage within your Google Drive account, begin by selecting "All items" from the sidebar menu. Subsequently, click the "Sort" button and choose the "Quota used" option.
This action will reorder your files based on their storage footprint, enabling you to easily locate and remove those that are unnecessarily large and no longer required.
It’s important to remember that files moved to the trash do not immediately release storage space. Google Drive automatically purges the trash contents after a period of 30 days.
However, if you require the storage to be freed up instantly, manually emptying the trash is recommended.
Files that have been shared with you do not contribute to your personal storage quota. The storage usage for shared files is attributed to the file's original owner.
Therefore, you can freely receive and access large files shared by others without impacting your own Google Drive storage limits.
Removing Older File Revisions
Google Drive retains earlier iterations of your files, which can contribute to increased storage usage. If a file has undergone multiple edits, older versions may be unnecessarily occupying valuable space.
To review these past versions, locate the file, then right-click and choose "Manage revisions." You can then eliminate unwanted revisions by clicking the "X" icon, thereby reclaiming storage.
It's important to understand that Google Drive automatically purges these older versions after a period of 30 days, or once the number of revisions reaches 100. Therefore, manual deletion is generally unnecessary unless immediate storage is required.
Currently, there isn't a function to delete revisions across multiple files simultaneously, meaning this process may be time-consuming if you have many files with extensive revision histories.
Important Note: Previous versions of files created within Google Docs do not contribute to your overall storage quota. These revisions are stored differently and do not impact your available space.
Managing Photo Sizes for Google+ Photos
Formerly known as Picasa Web Albums, Google+ Photos offers users a substantial amount of storage for their images, provided they adhere to specific resolution limits.
Storage Limits Based on Google+ Membership
- Individuals who have registered for Google+ are permitted to upload photos with dimensions up to 2048x2048 pixels. Images meeting this size requirement, or smaller, will not utilize space from their overall Google account storage allocation.
- Users who have not signed up for Google+ are limited to free storage for photos up to 800x800 pixels in size.
- Video files, with a maximum duration of 15 minutes, can be stored within Google+ Photos without impacting storage quotas, regardless of Google+ membership status.
The behavior of photo uploads via the web interface can be customized. Access your Google+ Settings, navigate to the Photos section, and review the status of the "Upload my photos at full size" checkbox.
If this option remains unchecked, uploaded photos will be automatically resized, ensuring they do not consume storage space. Conversely, enabling this setting will preserve larger image sizes, but these will contribute to your overall storage usage.
Further Reading: What Data Does Android Back Up Automatically?
The Google+ application for Android devices defaults to uploading photos in full resolution, which will count against your storage allowance. To modify this behavior, open the Google+ app, access the Settings menu, select "Auto Backup," and then choose your preferred "Photo size" option.
Selecting a smaller photo size will ensure images are automatically reduced before being stored, allowing them to utilize the free storage tier.
Should you exhaust your allocated storage capacity, Google will automatically compress photos to a maximum resolution of 2048 pixels before storing them within Google+ Photos.
Optimizing Photo Storage in Google Photos
Reviewing the images stored within your Google Photos account allows for efficient storage management. Photos exceeding dimensions of 2048x2048 pixels can be reduced in size to minimize their impact on your storage quota.
While Google doesn't offer a streamlined online tool for this purpose, a viable solution involves downloading your Google Photos library.
Locate the oversized images within the downloaded files and resize them accordingly. Subsequently, these smaller versions can be re-uploaded to Google Photos, effectively utilizing your free storage allocation.
Removing Unnecessary Images
Consider deleting photos that are no longer required. Automatic uploads from smartphone cameras often result in numerous duplicate or low-quality images consuming valuable storage space.
These automatically uploaded photos are typically saved at their original, full resolution, contributing significantly to storage usage. Regularly purging unwanted images is a proactive storage strategy.
- Reduce Image Size: Shrink photos larger than 2048x2048.
- Delete Unneeded Photos: Remove duplicates and low-quality images.
By implementing these practices, you can effectively manage your Google Photos storage and maintain a streamlined digital library.
Increasing Your Google Account Storage Capacity
For users willing to invest financially, multiple avenues exist to expand the storage capacity associated with their Google account.
Consider this: Living With a Chromebook: Can You Survive With Just a Chrome Browser?
- Chromebook Purchase: Currently, Google’s Chromebook devices are frequently bundled with promotions that provide a significant amount of supplementary storage for a defined period. For example, the Samsung Series 3 Chromebook, priced at $249, includes an additional 100 GB of storage for two years – a value of $120 if purchased separately. This represents a beneficial option if a Chromebook is already under consideration and increased storage is desired.
- Subscription-Based Storage: Google provides the option to purchase additional storage through a recurring monthly fee. A range of plans are available, starting at 100 GB for $5 per month and extending to 16 TB for $800 per month.
Currently, storage consumption is limited to specific Google services.
It’s important to note that certain data types do not contribute to your overall Google account storage quota.
Specifically, videos uploaded to YouTube, events saved within Google Calendar, and Android data synchronized with your Google account are all exempt from the storage limitations.
Image courtesy of Carol Rucker on Flickr.