Here’s how to create more space in Google Drive

• Google account holders get 15GB of free cloud storage space.
• The storage is shared by Google Drive, Photos and Gmail.
• Follow the steps to create more space that should allow you to use the free storage longer.

Whenever you create a new account with Google or Gmail, you get 15GB of free cloud storage that includes the Drive. Depending on the usage, the storage can get full and you will not be able to receive any more emails.
When you reach the point of finishing off your storage space, Google will prompt you to buy more storage space. If you don’t want to shell out money, you can free up the space by following the methods given below. It is important to note that the storage is shared by Google Drive, Gmail and Google Photos. Also, files that are in the trash and not deleted permanently are part of the storage.

Before you go about clearing up your storage, you should review the files in Google storage.

How to review your Google storage

• On your computer, open Google Drive in the browser.
• Go to settings, and look for storage.
• Here you can view the storage details and view the files taking up space from largest to smallest by clicking on ‘view items taking up storage’
• Alternatively, you view the amount of storage used on your mobile phone by heading over to the Google Drive app, tapping the hamburger icon and going to Settings > Storage.

How to remove files from Google Drive

• After reviewing the files, you can select the ones you wish to delete and send them to trash.
• Head over to the trash folder and delete all files to clear up the space.
• The space created from deleting unwanted files would reflect within 24 hours.

If most of your Drive storage is taken by Photos, you will have to manage the Photos app to create more space.

Clearing space from Google Photos

• To add additional space in Google Photos, first, remove all unwanted and duplicate photos.
• Now, you can add additional space to your drive by changing the upload size of images and videos from ‘original quality’ to ‘Storage saver quality’ by heading over to the settings and tapping on Back up & Sync > Upload Size. Note: this can only be done for already existing images and videos.
• Now, you can go to Settings and tap on ‘Recover storage’ to free up space that was taken up by original uploads.
• Do not forget to clear the trash folder in Google Photos.

Removing emails with large attachments can help create more space in the storage.

Clearing space from Gmail

• In the search box, write “has: attachment larger:10M” and hit search.
• This will show all the emails with over 10MB attachments.
• You can review and delete the ones you don’t require permanently.
• To delete, select one or more emails and send them to trash.
• Go to the trash folder, and delete the emails permanently.

Following these steps should enable you to use the Google Drive storage for free for longer periods of time.

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