(Credit: Cole Kan/PCMag/Google)
Are you getting warnings that your Google Drive storage is almost full? You've got two choices: to pay for extra space or to clean up your current storage. You could pay for more space through a Google One subscription, which starts at $1.99 per month for 100GB. Google AI subscriptions also include additional storage increments. But if you don't want another subscription, I have some handy tricks to help you clear out your Drive storage quickly.
By default, your Google account comes with 15GB of free storage (though you may need to do a little extra work to unlock all that room). However, it can fill up faster than you'd think, between emails, photos, and files you have saved in Gmail, Photos, and Drive. Whether you're on a personal account or an organizational Google Workspace account, to free up more storage, you need to find the files you no longer need and delete them.
It might sound painful, but I've got some tricks to help you get your Google Drive storage cleaned up, and some tips to help it stay that way.
Manually Delete Your Emails, Files, and Photos
You can manually delete files from your Google Drive storage by deleting unneeded emails in your Gmail inbox, deleting pictures in Google Photos, and removing files directly on your Drive. Just remember that when you delete anything, it is placed in the trash for an extended period of time before being wiped. To remove it immediately, you'll need to open the Trash folder and choose the Empty Trash now button.
To make this process easier, you can use filters or search by sender for emails, photos, or files you know you can safely get rid of, then mass delete them all at once.
Find and Remove Large Files
While you could spend your time hunting and pecking for any large email attachment, long video, or random file you no longer need, it's much easier and more effective to use Google's storage manager feature to track down any particularly large files it recommends you delete.
To see your existing storage, click on your image in Gmail and choose the cloud storage option at the bottom of the drop-down menu. On mobile, open Settings, tap your name, and select Manage storage. From the storage manager, you can see how much space you have, alongside options to add more storage or clean up existing files. You'll also see a breakdown of which services are using that space.
Choose Clean up space to view suggestions of large files that Google has identified and where they live, such as in Drive, Gmail, and Google Photos. From there, choose a category you want to target. In my case, the site suggested I focus on large photos and videos, emails with large attachments, large Drive files, and emails in my Trash. Click on a category, then select the documents, images, or videos to delete.
You may also spot some subcategories that can help narrow things down. For instance, I saw a Clutter category under Google Photos that showed me the screenshots and GIFs I had saved and Gmail let me see emails in my trash separately from my spam folder.
Get Rid of Shared Files
If a lot of your storage woes are due to files other people have shared with you, it's a good idea to target them for deletion. Open Google Drive, then select the Shared With Me category on the left. While you can sort this list of shared files by date (date shared, last modified, last opened, and so on) you cannot, sadly, sort it by file size. You may have to hunt and peck to find files to delete. Select a file or bulk-select many, then choose Remove from the menu.
Block Unwanted Shared Files
Unfortunately, anyone can share a document with you as long as they have your email address. If you're fed up with spammers, overeager salespeople, and misguided relatives sending files to your Drive, you can block them from doing so in the future. To do this, open Google Drive, select the Shared with me entry on the left, and make sure you're in list layout. Find the person you want to block in the Shared by column, then either right-click or select the three-dot icon and choose Report or block > Block [sender].
Manage Your Backups
The last thing to do is manage your device backups. Curious what is being saved to your Google storage? You can view a summary of the backup on the web by going to the Google One webpage and clicking the Backup panel. Here, you'll see what is being saved and how much space all your apps are taking up. However, you won't be able to change anything from here.
If you don't like what you see, you'll need to segue to your phone to make any changes. For me, I can open Settings on my Pixel phone, tap on my name, and then select Manage backup under the Backup is on section. From here, I can tap Photos & videos to disable these backups completely, change the image quality to save some space, or pick and choose which folders on my phone should be included in the backup. I can also choose Undo backup for this device to delete all photos and videos from the backup.
If I choose Other device data, I'll have the ability to stop backing up contacts, call history, device settings, apps, app data, messages, and SIMs. However, there's no way to separate individual data types—it's all or nothing here.
Jill Duffy contributed to this story.
About Our Expert
As PCMag's editor of how to content, I have to cover a wide variety of topics and also make our stories accessible to everyday users. Considering my history as a technical writer, copywriter, and all-around freelancer covering baseball, comics, and more at various outlets, I am used to making myself into an expert.
I believe tech corporations are bad, but you might as well know how to use technology in everyday life. Want more how to content delivered right to your inbox? Sign up for the tips and tricks newsletter that I curate three times a week.
My job as how-to guru means I use just about every gadget under the sun, so I can figure out how everything works. I work from a Lenovo ThinkPad running Windows 11, but also have a very large Dell Inspiron 17 3000 and Apple silicon MacBook. I have a Google Pixel 6a for personal use and use a Galaxy Z Flip 4 for additional Samsung-related testing. For iOS coverage, an iPhone 13 mini works like a charm, though it's already becoming a little long in the tooth.
My desktop situation includes a dual monitor setup with a modest Acer monitor. I also use a Logitech vertical mouse (who can use these ThinkPad trackpads) and a Havit keyboard (my first mechanical keyboard; I love it but my wife hates it!). I'm a recent convert from wired headphones; I have Anker Soundcore Liberty Air wireless earbuds for personal use and have taken to the Sennheiser HD 450BT headphones for work.
Whenever I have a second to myself, I'm probably gaming on my Nintendo Switch 2, Steam Deck, or Xbox Series S. I also still have a bunch of classic consoles lying around as well.
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