If you have a free Google account, it comes with 15GB of storage. That sounds like a lot, but that 15GB includes email, attachments, files in Google Drive, and images in Google Photos. Unless you meticulously delete everything you don’t need, your storage can fill up quickly. If you reach 15GB and don’t spring for a paid Google One plan, you won’t be able to receive new emails or sync files until you free up some space.
If you are interested in a paid plan, here is a screenshot of their four tiers (click to enlarge):
When you’re close to maxing out your storage, you will get a warning message from Google. If you’d like to see how much storage you are using before then, you can open Google Drive and look at the bottom of the left menu on a computer, or tap the menu icon on the left to make the menu appear on a mobile device.
Step One: Find and Delete Unwanted Images and Videos in the Photos App
One thing that will burn through your storage quickly is saving screenshots, memes, and videos on your phone. Sure, you may want to keep the Bernie Sanders in mittens meme set forever, but chances are you’re done with it.
You can delete photos from a computer or your mobile device. I prefer to use a computer because I can comfortably see and select multiple items at once. Other folks may not know the Google password that is saved on their device so the mobile option may be the only option available to them.
Keep in mind, that if you delete the image from Photos, it will also be deleted from your devices that sync with this Google account.
Step Two: See More Tips from Tech-Talk
Now that you’ve gotten started, chances are good that you’ll need to delete files from Gmail and Google Drive, too. Tech-Talk has some great tips on how to strategically delete from all three Google apps, as well as describing the Storage Saver setting in Photos to keep you from wasting storage space.
Summary
Google’s free cloud storage is very handy and easy to use. It’s also easy to fill up the free storage quickly. While Google hopes you’d rather pay for storage than take the time to delete unwanted items, with these tips and others from Tech-Talk, you can manage your free storage like a pro.
