How to Clear Google Drive Storage

Google Drive offers a great way to access your saved files on any device. The free cloud storage space offered by Google Drive is 15 GB, which is shared for all Google apps, such as Gmail, Google Photos, etc. In addition, the storage space will be occupied with files if you have enabled the backup data for apps, such as WhatsApp. As a result, you will easily have your Google Drive memory full after a few years of usage. If it happens, you won’t be able to store any files on Google Drive anymore. In such circumstances, you have to clear the Google Drive storage. This article will be a guiding light for you to free up the storage space on Google Drive in detail.

Delete Unwanted/All Files on Google Drive

If you have been using a particular Google account for a long time, then a backup of media files on your devices and Gmail attachments will be stored on Google Drive in huge numbers. Most of them would be occupying larger space and won’t be necessary for you currently. So you can better delete them and clear your Google Drive storage.

Delete Unwanted Files on Google Drive

If you plan to search for unwanted and larger files on Google Drive, Gmail & Google Photos apps one by one, it will be tiresome and won’t be suitable for immediate cause. So, follow this technique in the upcoming points to recognize and delete them easily.

Open Google Drive on your PC or smartphone and select the Storage option on the menu or left pane.
Click Clean up space, and you’ll get access to Storage Manager.

Scroll to the Clean up suggested items section, and you can review items that are occupying the most space on your Google Drive at once. They include cross-platform content, such as spam emails, bulkier media files, and emails with large attachments.

In each section, you can select the unwanted items and click on the Trash bin icon on the top right to delete them.

Clear up Old Files on GDrive:

If more old files are dumped in your Google Drive, you can delete them using the following methods.

Select the My Drive option on Google Drive and get all the stored files.
Select the Arrow icon on the top area (near File size) and change it to facing upwards. Now, the files will be sorted from old to new.
Press the Shift button (on a PC) or long-press any file (on a smartphone) and start selecting multiple unwanted files at once.
After selection, select the More icon at the right-hand corner and tap Move to Trash. Or, right-click and select Remove.

Select Remove to Clear Google Drive Storage

Trash Old Gmail Attachments:

Open the Gmail of the respective Google account.
On the Search bar that appears, enter the command has:attachment and search.
Select the Anytime dropdown and change it to Older than a year. The old attachments of your Gmail will show up.
Now, you can select the unwanted attachments using their respective checkbox at the left-side end and move them to the trash by selecting the Delete (Trash bin) icon on the top.

Delete Old Google Photos:

Open the Google Photos app or website. Go to the oldest timeline generally or on a particular folder.
Just like on the Google Drive app, choose the items you want to delete.
Then, click on the Delete icon and clear Google Drive storage.

Tip: When you select the Storage option on Google Photos, it will display blurry photos, screenshots, and unsupported videos in segregated folders. Make use of this and delete those items to clear Google Drive storage.

Delete All Files on Google Drive

If you don’t want any files saved on Google Drive, you can simply delete them all at once by following the below points. It won’t take a lot of your time, yet think carefully before you implement this.

If you are using the web version of Google Drive, select the My Drive folder and press Ctrl + A keyboard shortcut. Smartphone users long press any file on the Google Drive app’s My Drive section and tap the square-shaped icon near the More option.
Now, all the files on your Google Drive will be selected.
Select More → Remove or the Delete option to wipe out the files on your Google Drive completely.

Important Post-requisite to Do!

Even though you have deleted the unwanted or all the files on your Google Drive, Gmail, or Google Drive, you can still access them in the Trash folder for 30 days. Remember that files in the Trash bin also occupy your Google Drive memory, and you have to empty it to actually clear your Google Drive storage. To do so, select the Trash folder and click on the Empty Trash option. Confirm the process by selecting Delete Forever.

Look Into Hidden App Data & Shared With Me Folders

Some apps on your device will save some of its data secretly on Google Drive. These items can occupy a substantial amount of space. To remove them,

Select the Settings option on Google Drive and choose Manage Apps.
You’ll have the list of apps that are storing hidden data and the details of how much mega or giga byte it is taking.
Select the Options dropdown for any app and click on Delete hidden app data to clear it.

Google Drive’s Shared with me folder has all the files you’ve shared with others so far stored. If you check it out, there will definitely be the presence of irrelevant and huge files, which is not the need of the hour.

Select the Shared/Shared with me folder and select the Last Modified sorting.
The files you didn’t access recently will be pushed to the last. Check out and delete them. With that, check the file size details of second-priority files and remove them, too, if they are bulky.

Download Google Drive Files on a Device

One of the old-school ways to free up space on Google Drive is to delete the backup media files after downloading them onto a device. But, it is very tough for you to select and download one file one by one. So, I have come up with a smart technique that’ll help you download your required media files on Google Drive easily and quickly.

Take a PC or smartphone that has the required space to accommodate your Google Drive files.
Then, launch the Google Chrome web browser on it and search ‘Google Takeout‘.
Get into the first link and scroll through the available apps on your mobile whose data are backed up on this Google account.
Select the Checkbox near the Google Drive & Google Photos apps and click on the Next step button at the bottom.

In the next screen, tap Create Export. Now, the files on the selected apps will be exported into a link and sent to you via email.
Access the link and download the Google Drive and Google Photos files in zip format on your respective device.
Then, you can delete unnecessary or all the files on your Google Drive and have its memory ample for new files incoming.

Move WhatsApp Storage to Another Google Account

The fact is that WhatsApp’s backup is the one that holds most of your Google Drive space. So, you can transfer it to another Google account to free up your current Google account’s Drive storage.

On the WhatsApp app, select the Menu icon on the top right and choose Settings.
Tap Chats → Chat backup and select the Google account option.
In the pop-up menu, select Add account.
Choose the Create account option on the next screen and follow the on-screen prompts to create a new Google account. It will take only a few minutes.
Then, you’ll get back to the Chat backup section. Tap the Back up button, and transfer the WhatsApp data to your new Google account.

After transferring, launch the Google Drive app and go to its Menu (Hamburger icon).
Select the Backups option and locate WhatsApp’s backup data of this Google account. Select its More icon and click Delete backup.

Now, you have cleared around 15 GB of storage space on your Google Drive. Hereafter, the WhatsApp data on your mobile will be stored only on the new Google account you have created.

Convert PDF Files into DOC Format

If you are pursuing university graduation or a working professional, then you will be sharing and receiving files in PDF format daily. Without you realizing it, they get stored in huge numbers and contribute to the Google Drive memory full issue. The best way to tackle this without deleting your essentials and having access to them anywhere is by converting those PDF files into Google Docs. The reason is that Google Docs requires comparatively less space than PDF files on Google Drive. Here’s how to do it.

Select any PDF file on Google Drive and right-click on it.
In the appearing dialog box, click on the Open with option and choose Google Docs.

A duplicate of the PDF file will be created instantly in Doc format.
Now, you can delete the original PDF but still access the file as a document anyway.

In the same manner, you should also convert PowerPoint and Excel files to Google Slides & Sheets to save memory on Drive.

Tip: In the search bar of Google Drive, enter ‘Copy Of‘, and you will find the documents and PDF files that have been saved more than once. Locate those duplicate files and delete them to prevent unnecessary memory occupancy.

Buy Google One to Manage Google Drive Storage

Instead of deleting files to tackle Google Drive’s memory issue, there is a possibility of expanding its memory. To do this, you have to get Google One cloud storage by paying for it on a monthly or annual basis. Google One drive memory covers Google Photos & Gmail along with Google Drive. You can share a single Google One membership with 5 family members. Moreover, subscribing to its monthly plans will give you free access for the first month, and its charges apply only to the following month. Free cancellation is possible at any time you wish.

You can get 100 GB extra storage for Google Drive by paying $1.99/month or $19.99/year (Basic). To get 200 GB of additional storage, you can pay $2.99/month or $29.99/year (Standard). The Premium plan costs $9.99 and offers 2TB storage, while the AI Premium plan, available at $19.99/month, offers 2TB storage with Gemini Advanced and VPN (for Android mobiles).

To subscribe to Google One, select the Storage → Get more storage options on the Google Drive app/website. Then, choose a suitable plan and follow the on-screen prompts.

Use Open Source Tools to Extend Google Drive Memory

Google One is an authentic cloud storage platform that is recommended for the extension of Google Drive storage. But that doesn’t mean it is the only way for you to have extra space. Some open-source tools will help merge multiple Google Drive accounts and make them a separate cloud space. This is the best workaround method for having access to Drive files in one place while not having to face overloading issues.

CBackup is one such open-source cloud storage tool that is free of cost. I’ll better demonstrate how to merge your existing Google Drive accounts using CBackup for your better understanding. The procedure to do so is more or less similar to other platforms, too. Whichever platform you choose of this kind, either free or premium, refer to its storage limit beforehand.

Download the CBackup software and install it on your PC.
Select the Storage option and and choose Add Combined Cloud.
Now, you can add your Google Drive accounts to this space.
Select Combine and the files on the selected Google Drive accounts will be merged.
You can go to the Backup section and access the files of the added Google Drive accounts easily.

The above-mentioned are the possible ways in which you can clear storage on a Google Drive account. If you don’t want to face this issue anymore, you can better stop Google Drive backup on your device. Otherwise, you can create a new account every time you have Google Drive full. Remember that there are a lot more cloud storage platforms available for your devices, and you don’t have to rely only on Google Drive always. So, check out alternatives like Dropbox, OneDrive, etc.,

FAQ

1. Why can’t I delete Google Drive files?

Your device’s internet connection is down if deleting a Google Drive file fails. Otherwise, you are trying to trash a file to which you are not the owner or have read-only access.

2. How can I prevent Google Drive from becoming full?

You can either stop Google Drive backup or check and delete large files regularly to avoid the Google Drive full issue.

3. Why do I get the Google Drive full message even though it has no files?

If you get the ‘Google Drive memory full’ message despite having any files saved, then Gmail attachments and Google Photos should be over-dumped. So, check them and delete timely.

4. Can I transfer my Google Photos to someone else’s custody and delete them from my Google Drive?

Yes. You can set up partner sharing on Google Photos and backup photos on your and another person’s Drive simultaneously from a particular date. After that, if you clear your Google Drive memory, you’ll still have the deleted Google Photos saved in the partner’s Drive.