If you use Google productivity tools, you’ve likely met the Google Drive Storage Full error, that can affect the same-named cloud storage facility. Google Drive is a fantastic resource that provides large amounts of cloud storage with access from anywhere via various devices, but it can quickly fill up if you use it as a fast and convenient waste dump for multiple files and directories. Normally, you’ll get 15GB of free cloud services from Google Drive, which is plenty for most people, but it’s still easy to consume.
This is especially true if you have a habit of just not having to clean up out for yourself and having left old or unwelcome content on your computer. The situation is exacerbated by the fact that Gmail and Google Photos share the same quota. Even if you’re extremely organized, keep track of stored documents, and clean as you go, the Google Drive Storage Full error can still occur.
This vexing bug can appear at any time and, as is often the case, occurs when you are significantly less likely to just want to fix it. The good news is that there are many remedies to this common problem, which we will outline below.
Have a Spring Cleaning
When you can see what’s taking up disk space on your Google Drive, you’ll have a much better understanding of what needs to be deleted. If you’re a frequent Gmail user, it’s surprisingly easy to accumulate a backlog of content, typically in the shape of attachments. These can eat up a significant portion of your storage space.
Try a Gmail search to find large emails, say 10MB or more, and delete them if they’re no longer needed. This can be done quickly and easily if you select all of the unwanted files at once and delete one another to use the delete button.
Photos Should be Compressed
Because of in out smartphones, we all have a lot more images that take up space. Some phones also save fairly high-resolution images, which increases file size. You can avoid this by compressing any pictures that you don’t need to maintain in one‘s original resolution with Google Photos.
As long as you don’t mind sacrificing quality, this can net you big savings in storage. Inside the top right hand corner of the Google Photos interface, there is a gear icon with a Retrieve storage option. Confirm the Storage backup option here, and your photos will be compressed into a smaller size.
Take Out the Trash
While you may believe you’ve successfully deleted unwanted files and can see them in the Google Drive trash, it’s a good idea to also click the Delete Forever symbol in there. Assuming you’re certain users no longer would like the content, this will permanently delete it.
Google will eventually do it for you. If you’re unsure about removing some files, you can sign up for the next cloud service, most of which are available or charge a small fee if you don’t have a large amount of data to handle.
