Currently Google is the mail service that offers us more space both for our emails and for storing files in the cloud, with a space of 15 Gb, space that we can expand by going through the box, something that very few users do, since with 15 GB we have more than enough space for our personal needs.
Also thanks to the unlimited space for photos and videos (other than in 4k quality), we will always have a copy of all the photos on our smartphone in a safe place. without taking up part of the free space offered by the Google guys. But if we are forced to recover space in Google, below we show you several options to do it quickly and easily.
Check the details of the occupied space
The 15 GB that Google offers us when we open the account are used to store emails, files in the cloud and photos that we take with our devices, without we have this option activated on our smartphone. The first thing we must do to know where we have to direct our objectives is to know which of these three services is occupying the most space. To do this we must go to the end of the inbox, where the occupied space of the total offered to us or we have a contract with Google is displayed and click on Manage.
Next, Google will offer us a graph with the free and occupied space of our account along with the option of hiring more storage space. Just below the graph where the space we have occupied and free is shown, click on See details, so that the space of each of the three services that can occupy our storage space is shown broken down.
Remove attachments that take up the most space
Thanks to messaging applications, email is no longer used, at least to the same extent, to share photos or videos. But it is likely that at some point we will be forced to do so, just like other people. If that is the case, the most advisable thing is that as soon as we receive the mail, we download the images, videos or documents we receive to our computer and let's proceed to delete the mail.
But if it is too late and our email account is full of these types of emails, thanks to Gmail's search options, we can quickly locate the emails that take up the most space. To do so we just have to write the following line of text in the email search engine size: 2m where 2m represents the size of files that exceed that space.
But if we also want the search to be limited to a period of time, for example, older than a year ago, we can add at the end of that line the older: 2015/01/01 where 2015/01/01 is the date back from which it will search for emails that are larger than 2 MB. Keep in mind that the date format is American: year / month / day.
Delete the contents of the SPAM folder
Everyone usually has more than one email account, each dedicated to a specific purpose. But if we use only one email account, it is likely that it is in a large number of mailing lists and every day we receive a large number of emails / spam. Over time, and especially if we do not usually remember to empty it, they can reach occupy an important part of our space, so it is always advisable to empty it periodically.
That is, by doing it periodically we can see if an email has been sneaked into this folder that should not have ended up in this folder. Gmail automatically deletes every 30 days all content stored in this folder, so it is always advisable to review it every week.
Delete the contents of the trash
As the SPAM folder deletes all emails received more than 30 days ago, the Trash folder does it too, but if we always want to have all the free space at all times, it is recommended after cleaning our inbox to delete all the emails stored in this folder.
Review files stored in Google Drive
If we have our computer synchronized with Google Drive, it is likely that over time, some temporary files have been lodged in our local folder and are taking up space without us knowing. To check, we just have to check if the space in the folders on our computer occupies the same space as the one shown by our Google Drive account.
If not, the best we can do is delete all content from Google Drive, delete the application and reinstall it so that all files are correctly synchronized with their corresponding space again, completely eliminating hidden or temporary files that are occupying space on our account.
Use an email client
The Gmail service works in a very fast and fluid way which allows us to forget about email clients. But if we usually receive a large number of emails, with many attachments, it is likely that the best option to keep free space in our account is to use an email account and modify the operation of Gmail by enabling the POP service, a service that is responsible for download all the emails we receive to later delete them once downloaded.
To do this we must go to the right part of the screen and click on the gear wheel for later select Configure. Next we go to Forwarding and POP / IMAP mail. Now we go to Download POP mail, we select the first option Enable POP for all messages (even if they have already been downloaded) and in the second step When accessing messages through POP click on the dropdown and select Delete the copy of Gmail.
Delete subscription and notification emails
Both Twitter and Facebook, like other companies have the habit of sending us an email practically every day, which over time can occupy an important part of the space we have in Gmail. If you have not deleted the native folders that Gmail offers us when we create an email account, they are all in this folder, so we only have to go to it, yeselect them all and eliminate them. Once we have deleted them, we must go through the Trash and delete them.
To stop receiving these happy emails, which not only do is waste time, at the end of these emails, there is a link that will allow us unsubscribe to stop receiving this type of mail that as a general rule we never read.
Delete older emails
If we have been using the same email account for several years, it is likely that we have stored emails from several years ago, email that currently does not make any sense to keep it in our email account. For perform a search for the oldest emails, we must write in the search box older: date in American format, year / month / day, so that all emails prior to the date we have established are displayed.
Once all the oldest emails are shown, we must select them all and delete them, for later go through the Trash folder and delete them completely to leave no trace in our Gmail account and obtain valuable storage space that these emails occupy.