If you want to save space, don’t download shared files to your own Google Drive unless you absolutely have to. When other people share Drive content with you, that content doesn’t occupy any of your storage space unless you choose to add that content to your Drive. If you think that your photos might be larger or in better quality, go to Google Photos’ Backup & Sync settings and restrict the upload size to high quality. Google Photos allows you to back up images of up to 16MB in size each, and up to 1080p HD quality.

With Photos, you get unlimited cloud storage space for your albums plus automatic organization for your shots. Instead of adding your photos to the Drive, use Google Photos. This is true for email attachments as well.ĭo you back up your photos on Google Drive? High-quality photos take up a lot of space but they don’t have to. Put simply, posting files in Google’s own formats will not use up your Drive space quota, leaving you more space for other files. But if you want to increase the free space on your Drive, store documents in Google’s native formats (Docs, Sheets, Slides, Drawings and more) because Google gives free unlimited storage for these formats. The beauty of Google Drive is that you can upload files in their original format without having to convert them. If you store video files on your Google Drive, then you can recover tons of space by uploading the videos to YouTube and marking them either Private to prevent others from accessing them or Unlisted to be able to share the URLs with your family, friends, or team. Doing that can help you free up a hefty amount of space. The largest files will be at the top of the list.Īnother thing you should do is check your Google Drive storage for duplicate files. To check which files are occupying the most space, open in your browser. Chances are that you’re storing quite a few outdated files you could safely delete. The first thing you should do is review what you have on your Drive and delete the files you don’t need anymore. How to Delete Duplicate Files from Google Drive Automatically Do a Google Drive Storage Inventory

Empty up google drive space