How to get more Space on Google Drive: Tips to free up and create space

Tech giants like Apple, Microsoft and Google offer their own cloud services because they believe cloud service is the future of data storage. Ease of use and free storage capabilities is what differentiates one service from another. Google, for instance, was among the pioneers in cloud storage services to exceed the 10 GB threshold for free packages with the roll out of Google Drive. Moreover, the list of features continues to evolve and grow with time in case of Google Drive. The service, if you know offers great synchronization capabilities across devices and integrates tightly with Google services.

Although, the amount of free space offered is sufficient for individual’s needs, the quota can exhaust soon if you have the habit of uploading large size videos and documents on regular basis. It is therefore desirable to free up some space on your Google Drive account rather than paying few bucks to buy extra storage space.

Get more space on Google Drive

You should have an eye of an enquirer so, first find which files are consuming the sizeable amount of free space. To do this, right click on the Google Drive icon in the system tray and select preferences. This section shows you a pie chart and the amount of free space available in your account.

After inspection is done, it is time to free some space so begin your cleanup mission! Launch Google. Then, near the UI’s lower left side, find a link and exact breakup of data stored in your account by simply hovering the mouse cursor over it.

Next, click on the option ‘Drive’ and you should see the view sorted by quota used.

 

 

Now, to check large files created by you, use the search option and select Ownership as Owned by me. Remove the ones you don’t require.

Also, if you know, Google saves earlier versions of files that can consume sizeable amount of space over time. You can create space by right clicking on a file to check its earlier versions and delete them to free space. Google deletes the old versions every 30 days by default.

In another case, a lot of PDF files stored in the Google Drive account which are important consume your free space available. So, while it is not advisable to delete them, it’s prudent to convert such files to Google Docs format to free up precious storage space.

The conversion is simple and a 2 step process. Right-click on the files and select ‘Open with’ and then chose Google Docs. The action when confirmed will result in the creation of a Google Doc.  Delete the PDF file!

Users not aware, every email on your Gmail takes up some amount of space and affects the overall storage available on your account. You can use the Advanced Search option and search for emails with large attachments. If not required, delete them.

Finally, clear the trash as deleted messages in trash folder still count towards your storage.