Want to get rid of old memories? Know how to clear your Google Drive

Many of us rely on technology for all our important documents, data and memorable stuff. For this purpose tech giant Google gives its users 15GB free space in Google Drive and it’s a huge space.

The 15GB space in Google Drive is not only for the files you upload but also for Gmail and Google Photos.

The messages and attachments sent or received using your Gmail account as well as all the photos that you upload in original quality on Google Photos share the same storage.

When you approach your 15GB limit, you can either buy Google’s premium plan or clear your storage. While the first option will cost you money, the second one is free and needs only a few minutes. Choice is yours. Know the few steps to clear your Drive:

How to free up Google Drive space

You can head over to drive.google.com/settings/storage to see a pie chart distribution of your space used by Drive, Gmail, and Google Photos. On your phone app, tap on the hamburger menu icon in the Drive app > Storage > View details to see the break up of the used space.

If the majority of your free space is consumed by Drive, then proceed to clear the Drive storage:

1. Go to drive.google.com/drive/quota, which lists all the files saved.

2. Select all the files that you want to remove.

3. Move to Trash and then permanently delete them from Trash as well.

After you are done cleaning the space, the deleted items will show in the available space in your account within 24 hours.

Clear Gmail and Google Photos space

In case your Drive space is blocked by Google Photos and Gmail, you need to clear them as well. For Google Photos, it is better to change your photos and videos from “Original quality” to “High quality” for unlimited storage space in the Photos app. Also, go to Settings in Google Photos and click on “Recover storage” to claim back the space taken by current uploads.