You get the notification: “You’re almost out of storage.” Or worse, you try to send an email and Google tells you your account is full and nothing works anymore — no new emails, no Drive uploads, no photo backups. Here’s exactly what to do, starting with the fastest wins.
First: Understand What’s Using Space
Go to one.google.com/storage. This shows you a breakdown of storage use across Gmail, Drive, and Photos — the three places Google storage goes. Most people are surprised to find Photos and Gmail consuming far more than Drive. Start with the biggest number.
The Fastest Wins
1. Empty the Trash in All Three Places
Deleted items in Gmail, Drive, and Photos continue occupying storage until you empty the trash. Go to Gmail → Trash → Empty Trash Now. Google Drive → Trash → Empty Trash. Google Photos → Library → Trash → Empty Trash. This alone sometimes recovers several gigabytes. Do this before anything else.
2. Delete Large Gmail Attachments
In Gmail search bar, type: has:attachment larger:10mb. This surfaces emails with large attachments. Sort by size. You’ll often find years-old emails with large video files, zip archives, or presentation decks you’ve never opened. Delete them. Also search has:attachment larger:5mb for medium-large files. Each deleted thread removes the attachment from your storage count.
3. Clear Spam Folder
Gmail → Spam → Delete all spam messages now. Spam accumulates silently and can hold thousands of messages with small attachments that add up.
4. Find and Delete Large Drive Files
In Google Drive: click the storage indicator at the bottom left → “View storage.” This sorts all your files by size. Work from the top. Look for old videos, large zip files, duplicate backups, and recordings from Google Meet. A single 1-hour video can consume 1–2 GB.
5. Google Photos: Remove Blurry and Duplicate Photos
Google Photos has a built-in utility: click the three bars → Utilities → “Manage storage” → it identifies blurry photos, screenshots, and duplicates for quick removal. A photo library built up over 5+ years can contain thousands of near-duplicates from burst shooting. Removing them is tedious but often recovers 10–20 GB.
6. Convert to Storage-Saver Quality in Photos
Google Photos → Settings → Backup quality → change to “Storage saver.” This compresses existing original-quality photos to a smaller format that Google doesn’t count against your quota for photos taken before June 2021. Important: photos added after June 2021 count regardless of quality setting.
If You Need More Space Immediately
Google One plans start at $2.99/month for 100 GB. For most users, 100 GB is several years of headroom. If you’re just over the free 15 GB limit, clearing the trash and large attachments often brings you back under without paying. If you’re significantly over, evaluate whether the annual Google One plan ($29.99/year for 100 GB) is more economical than the time spent aggressively pruning.
Long-Term: Prevent It From Filling Again
- Set a quarterly calendar reminder to check storage and clear trash.
- Unsubscribe from high-volume email lists (newsletters, promotional emails) that you delete without reading — they create ongoing storage load via attachments.
- For large files you want to keep but not access often, move them to an external drive or a different cloud service.
Sources: Google One Help Center. | Google Photos Support Documentation. | Gmail Help: Find and delete large emails.