If you’ve got a Google account, you probably know that you’ve only got 15GB of free space that you can use. And if you’re like most people, that storage is already full and now you’re seeing a message that says you’re out of room. To avoid upgrading to a paid storage plan and to make some extra room in your digital filing cabinet, read up on these tips to free up some space.
We recommend doing this on your desktop rather than a mobile device, as you’ll have an easier time sorting through and managing files, but we’ll walk you through both processes.
1. Delete large files first
If you want to keep the majority of your items in Google Drive and Gmail, you can free up space by sorting each service by file size and deleting only one or two large files instead of a few dozen smaller items. Deleting one or two videos that take up multiple megabytes of space is easier than sorting through hundreds of old documents of the same file size to decide which can be deleted.
Here’s how to delete files by size in Google Drive on your desktop:
1. Log in to your Google Drive account.
2. Once you’re logged in, 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 not, click Storage used on the right side of the screen. The files should now be ordered from largest to smallest.
4. Click large files you want to delete to select them, then click either the trash bin that appears near the top of the screen once items are selected or drag the large files to Trash on the left side of the screen.
5. Click Trash on the left-hand side menu to go to the Trash menu.
6. Click Empty trash in the top-right corner of your screen.
7. Click Delete forever and your files are gone.
You can do this in the Google Drive app as well. Here’s how:
1. Open your Google Drive app and log in to your account.
2.…
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