It happens to the best of us: you create a few Word documents, upload a few pictures from your family vacation… and boom! All your Google Drive storage is taken up. Luckily, it’s easy to figure out what’s taking up the most space and how to free up space on Google Drive.
Before you go off and start deleting a bunch of files in bulk, we recommend taking a moment to learn how to determine what's taking up the most space on your Google account, as well as what types of files count toward that limit and how you can clean them up. We'll show you how to make room on your Google Drive to accommodate all of your future files.
How much space does Google Drive give you?
By default, all individual Google Drive accounts come with 15GB of free storage. That’s a real bargain, since you don’t have to pay a dime for it. This is especially true since most other free cloud storage services have much lower limits (usually less than 10GB and often much closer to 2GB). Dropbox offers 2GB by default, kDrive offers XNUMXGB by default, andInfomaniak goes up to 3GB and OneDrive generously offers 5GB.
But you have most certainly noticed it yourself, this limit, as generous as it is, fills up too quickly, which is explained by all the elements that Google has integrated into this storage limit.
Which files does Google Drive count towards the total limit?
The problem with Google Drive is that Google chooses what is included in this 15 GB limit. As a result, many files and data from other G Suite software are taken into account, which can quickly increase the amount of data used in these 15 GB.
Here's what Google counts against your storage limit and what it doesn't:
Data taken into account
In Google Drive, the items that take up space are most of the files saved in your drive (PDF, videos, images, etc.) as well as the items present in the trash of your Google Drive space. This is also the case for all Google Docs/Sheets/Slides/Forms files created or modified before June 1, 2021.
gmail is also a heavy user of your storage space. So, all messages and their attachments are counted including those in your “Spam” and “Trash” folders.
For users of Google Photos, you must add all photos and videos saved in original quality as well as photos or videos saved in high quality (“Space Saver”) or Express quality after June 1, 2021.
Data not taken into account
Fortunately, there is some data that Google does not take into account in the occupation of your Google Drive space.
This is the case for files in the " Shared with me » and the Drives shared with you. Logically, these files are counted on their owner's Drive.
The files Google Site as well as the files Google Docs/Sheets/Slides/Forms created before June 2021 and which have not been modified since.
And finally, on the side of Google Photos, any photos saved in Storage Saver or Express quality before June 1, 2021 are not counted.
So no miracles, Google takes into account almost everything… and it’s not getting any better!
How to know the remaining disk space on Google Drive?
First of all, it is important to know how to find out how much storage space you have left on Google Drive. There are different methods to find out the information.
The first methodThe easiest way to do this is to open Google Drive and look at the bottom of the sidebar. You'll see a cloud logo with the words "Storage" next to it. Just below that bar is a meter that shows how much disk space you're using (and the option to buy more just below that). If you have free space, you probably don't need to take any further action right now. If you're getting close to that limit, read on for some ways to get away from it.
The second method consists of going to the page Storage from google drive, whether on your mobile or on your computer. In practice, this is the Google One storage summary page and it therefore displays all the details relating to the storage space you are using on the various Google services. This page therefore allows you to see the amount of space you are using but also the distribution of your storage between Google Drive, Gmail, Google Photo and your Android smartphone backups.
How to see what's taking up the most space and free up Google Drive space?
One way to clean up your Google Drive is to determine which files are the largest and delete them or save them elsewhere (hard drive, other storage service, etc.). We all have a few huge files on our Drive, forgotten for years and taking up your storage space. Deleting these unnecessary files is the most effective way to free up space with the least possible effort.
Now that you know how to see which Google apps are taking up the most space (see above), things are a little easier. You'll be able to more easily target the actions you need to take to free up Google Drive space.
If your problem is with Gmail, I have already presented you with some tips allowing you to do a little cleaning in deleting your old emails or by making a filter on the largest emails.
But Google also makes available a nice tool to clean up your storage. That's because this nifty tool automatically finds and lists all the files you probably don't want or need anymore, like spam and deleted emails, large Gmail attachments, or very large photos and videos. These items quickly clutter your storage space and it may be worth getting rid of them, even if you haven't exceeded the fateful limit yet.
To use this tool, go back to your Google Account Storage page and scroll down to the bottom of the page until you see the box titled “Reclaim your storage.”
By clicking on the "Free up account storage space" link, you will access a page that will list for you everything you can delete to recover space. This data is grouped by theme: deleted items, large items and other items, then by Google application (Gmail, Drive, etc.).
By clicking on these different elements, Google directly filters those that are worth deleting.
You then just have to select those that no longer interest you to regain space on Google and therefore on Google Drive!
As you will have understood, there is no miracle solution. To find Google Drive space, you will have to clean up your files, your emails, etc.
Otherwise, you can opt for a Google One subscription which offers you 100 to 200 GB of space for €2 or €3 per month. You can also go to the competition and opt for paid clouds from Dropbox or Microsoft… In short, these services are generally billed at a few euros and are generally very reliable.
