lifehacker lifehacker LifeHacker LifeHacker 6 ways to free up space in Gmail and Google Drive

The free version of Gmail is quite generous, unlike other services such as iCloud.

Gmail and Google Drive give you 15GB of storage, so that's enough for most people. But now that many people have been using Gmail for over a decade, they can't fit that long-term data into 15GB.

Once you reach the 15GB limit, you won't be able to add any more files to Google Drive, and eventually you won't be able to receive email in your Gmail inbox.

For those who don't want to pay Google to add space, here are some ways you can quickly free up space.

Delete large emails in Gmail

The quickest way to free up Gmail is to delete large files.

Cloud storage services are surprisingly easy to upload and share files, so many people (or companies) send large attachments.

Eventually, you'll wonder where the 15GB capacity has gone and why you're being prompted to buy more.

For those in such situations, the quickest way to free up space is to target and delete large attachments.

You can use the size parameter to delete files of a specific size. For example, if you enter "size: 5m" in the search bar of Gmail, Gmail will display all emails with a size of 5MB or more, so check if you need that email, then select the one you don't need and delete it. can.

Similarly, you can enter "size: 1m" to search for emails larger than 1MB, or enter "size: 20m" to search for emails larger than 20MB.

The number before the "m" represents megabytes, so change the number as needed to search.

Delete old Gmail emails

Like the old trash in the storeroom, Gmail's inbox may also contain treasures that Indiana Jones is likely to find. But I don't think all the emails from 15 years ago are important, so if you want to free up some space, you should delete some of the old emails.

Type "older_than: 5y" in the Gmail search bar to see emails you received over 5 years ago. If you change the number before the "y", the search results of the emails that years ago will be displayed. Again, you can check your emails, pick the ones you don't need and delete them.

If you have very few emails you can delete, you may want to create a new Gmail account and forward your old emails there.

Get rid of extras in Gmail right away

There are some types of emails that you read once and never read again. Newsletters, password change emails, sign-in alerts, bank transaction alerts, and more.

By removing these, you can free up a lot of space in Gmail. You can easily find such emails by entering the sender's email address in the search bar at the top.

For example, if you've received a lot of sign-in alerts from "noreply@google.com", enter that address in the search bar and delete all the emails. You can also search by the name of a specific sender. Check by bank name or newsletter name to find and delete unwanted emails.

Of course, there may be a lot of email in Gmail's spam and Trash folders as well. In such a case, you can quickly free up space by deleting the email.

Free up space on Google Drive

A quick way to free up Google Drive is to log in with your laptop or desktop computer.

When you open this page, you'll see the largest file in your Google Drive at the top. Select it and delete it. If you want to free up space quickly, you can also click the Trash folder in the left panel and delete all the files from there.

You may also want to check the Shared Items folder in Google Drive to remove large files and folders you don't need.

Most people don't have to worry too much, as such files occupy space only in the owner's drive.

Free up space on Google Photos

You can also use Google Photos to remove unwanted photos to free up more space on your Google Drive. There is also a detailed guide article on managing the capacity of Google Photos, and there are also ways to move photos, so please check it out.

Last resort to free up capacity

If none of this works, you can create a new Gmail account and have the files saved there.

Alternatively, check out our guide to finding free and cheap cloud storage services.

If you don't have enough space right away, you might consider moving your files to a cheap USB or portable drive so you don't have to pay for cloud services.

That said, Google's paid plans are a great deal, and Google Drive is easy to use across different platforms. The convenience of having easy access to your files from anywhere is well worth the money for many.

However, Google Drive isn't the cheapest service, so there are other services that are even better, such as OneDrive's 1TB capacity and Microsoft 365, which gives you a full Office for $ 7 a month.

Source: google [1, 2, 3] Microsoft