Free up storage space

What you'll learn

What you'll need

10 minutes

Need storage for your personal Google Account? Free up personal storage

In this tutorial

The Google Account that you use for work or school may have a storage limit. This storage limit is set by your Google Workspace license or your administrator. If you get a warning that you’re running out of space, here are some tips for freeing up space or getting more.

1. Go to drive.google.com/drive/quota . You see how much storage you use in Google Drive, Gmail, and Google Photos. This information can help focus your clean out effort, but you may need to delete data from a few places. 
2. Get details about what counts toward storage .

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1. Find and remove large files:
   1. Go to drive.google.com/drive/quota , where your files are listed in order from biggest to smallest.
   2. Right-click a file that you want to delete and then click Move to Trash.
2. Find files and folders that you can delete  using Drive search . For example:
   • Video files that you no longer need ( try it in Drive )
   • Audio recordings that you no longer need ( try it in Drive )
   • Old presentations ( try it in Drive )
   • Old drafts or copies of files
3. Select the files that you want to delete and click Move to Trash.
4. Click Trashand confirm that you want to delete the files. Caution:After files are permanently deleted in the next step, you can’t recover them.
5. Click Empty Trash. This action permanently deletes your files and frees up their storage space. If you delete many files at once, it can take some time for the space to be freed up.

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1. Find emails that you can delete  using Gmail search . For example:
   • Emails that are greater than a certain size, such as 15 MB ( try it in Gmail )
   • Older emails, such as emails you got more than 3 years ago ( try it in Gmail )
   • Emails with attachments ( try it in Gmail )
   • Newsletters, emails from groups, or organizational updates that come from the same sender or have a standard subject line
2. Select the emails that you want to delete and click Delete.
3. Click Trashand confirm that you want to delete the emails. Caution:After emails are permanently deleted in the next step, you can’t recover them.
4. Click Empty Trash now. This action permanently deletes your emails and frees up their storage space. If you delete many emails at once, it can take some time for the space to be freed up.

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1. Find and review your videos, which often use the most storage:
   1. Go to https://photos.google.com/search/_tv_video to see your videos.
   2. Select the videos that you don't need and click Delete.
   3. Go to https://photos.google.com/unsupportedvideos  to see any videos that aren’t supported by Photos. (These unsupported videos don’t show up in Photos search results). Delete any videos that you don't need.
2. Find other groups of photos and videos that you can delete  using Photos search .
3. Scroll to your oldest photos and delete out-of-date photos or photos that you no longer need.
4. Use the Explore page to quickly find groups of content that you can delete, such as photos of specific people or places, videos, screenshots, and creations such as animations and movies.
5. Click Trashand confirm that you want to delete the photos and videos. Caution:After they're permanently deleted in the next step, you can’t recover them.
6. Click  Empty Trash. This action permanently deletes your photos and frees up their storage space. If you delete many photos at once, it can take some time for the space to be freed up.

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You can’t buy storage for your work or school account directly. Instead, ask your administrator to upgrade your license or increase your storage limit. Who is my administrator?

• Manage files in your Google Drive storage
• (Administrators) Google Workspace storage FAQ for admins

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