Manage Google Account Storage In Google Drive, Photos & Gmail

Does your Google say out of storage? Or your Google is about to run out of space. Then it’s time you learn “How to Manage Google Account Storage?” Many users don’t even have an idea about what’s eating up their Google space. It is the 1000 photos that you took or those unnecessary newsletters you have subscribed to. 

To better understand, your complete Google Storage is comprised of 3 big components: Google Drive, Gmail, and Google Photos, which can be managed, monitored, and deleted under Google One Storage Manager. 

In this guide, we will discuss why it is necessary to manage Google Storage Space and multiple manual and automated ways that will help you do so. So let’s get to managing your Google Storage. 

Understanding Google Account Storage 

Google offers you a limited amount of storage space per account. If you have a free @gmail.com account, then you get 15GB of free space per account. Many users also purchase a Google One Subscription for more Google Storage Space, for family account sharing, and other Google One subscription features. 

This storage of the Google Account is shared across Google Drive, Gmail, and Google Photos. To manage Google account storage means managing these three. 

Google Storage on Family Account: 

For people with a Google One Subscription, willing to manage storage on the Google family account. It is important to understand that you have your 15GB of personal Google Storage Space. Only when this storage is full, your data eats up space from the family storage pool. 

What Happens When You Exceed The Google Account Storage?

If you do not manage Google account storage space, there are various consequences that you can encounter: 

• Gmail Stops Working: You will face issues with receiving emails in Gmail in the Inbox, making you lose out on important messages. 
• Google Drive Sync Stopped: When you do not manage your Google account space, and its limits are exceeded, Google Drive will not sync, add new, or edit existing files.   
• Auto Google Data Deletion: Not monitoring Google account data after 24 months of exceeding limits will lead to data loss. 

Why Manage Google Account Storage? Advantages 

If you manage storage for Google Photos, Drive, and Gmail, you not only avoid the above consequences, but you also get various benefits. 

• Increased Efficiency: Managing Google account storage increases the efficiency of the Google Workspace tool and decreases the search time.  
• Better Organization: Managing helps you organize Gmail and drive data better. Organized files help increase productivity and create a better digital space. 
• Enhanced Security and Backup: Managing Google account storage settings, ensure that when you create a backup, it is only of the required files. You have a better look at phishing emails or sharing permissions that may cause data loss. 
• Cost-Saving: If you monitor and maintain your Google Space better by deleting Gmail emails, your Google Storage quota might not be exceeded. You may not need to spend extra money just for storage. 
• Better Collaboration: Managing shared files in Google Drive Storage can help you save a lot of storage, which makes collaboration easier with the team. 

How To Manage Google Account Storage? 

Let us learn how you can take full control of your Google account storage step by step. 

Step 1: Check Your Google Storage Details 

In order to manage Google account storage, it is important to review “how much Google Storage you have left” and what the utilized storage consists of. Here is how you can analyze the storage distribution shared across Google Photos, Google Drive, and Gmail. 

1. Open Google One in your browser. 
2. Sign up with your Google Account.
3. On the top right, click on “Open Google One.” 
4. Click on “Storage” from the left panel. 

You can now see how much storage you have, how much is used, and its distribution amongst Google Drive, Gmail, Google Photos, and Other. 

Note: Having an idea about Space usage helps you target the root cause easily.

Step 2: Clear Up Unwanted Data in Google Storage Space

Now, since you have a proper idea about what the culprit is behind the disorganization of Google storage data. Here is how you can clean up and manage Google account storage. 

• Clean Up Google Storage using Storage Manager: 
  Google One is the storage manager of your Google Account. Follow the steps to clean up and manage Google Space using the Storage Manager: 
  1. Open Google One and log in with the desired Gmail account. 
  2. Click on “Open Google One” on the top right. 
  3. Hit “Home” from the left panel. 
  4. Press “Clean up space” and the “View”. 
  5. Scroll down to “Clean up suggested items.” 
  6. You will find Large Drive files, Emails in bin, Emails with large attachments, and Spam emails. 
  7. Open them one by one. 
  8. Check the “Showing All” box and delete them. 
  9. Repeat the process to entirely clean up with other folders. 
• Clear Up Gmail: If you find that Gmail is the your Gmail is stopping you and you can’t manage Google storage because of it, then delete Gmail Emails on all devices.

Tips: Make sure you clear out the spam and promotional emails initially. Also, prefer downloading Old Emails from Gmail before you permanently delete them.

Keep In Mind: Once you have cleared up unwanted files or Gmail, it is important to clear up trash/bin, otherwise they would continue to occupy Google space. 

Step 3: Manage Google Account Storage Beyond Auto Suggest 

Google One is a very efficient storage manager, but it is not a complete solution. Here are a few limitations of managing a Google Account this way. 

• Google One only detects large files occupying space, not unwanted ones. 
• It only offers a limited option when you manage storage on a Google Family account. 
• It often misses unused shared files in Drive’s storage. 
• Once you permanently delete files, there is no chance of getting them back, unless you have a local backup. 

Due to these reasons, it becomes important to manually verify if all the unwanted files are cleared when you try to manage Google Account Storage. 

Go to Google Photos, Gmail, and Drive to manually manage all the remaining unwanted files occupying storage. 

Tip: To better manage your Google Space on any account. You can further organize them into “Folders” for easy access. 

FAQs: Manage Google Account Storage 

Q1: How can I manage my Google account storage?

Managing Google Storage means managing data on Google Mail, Photos, and Drive. You can use Google’s storage manager, i.e., Google One, for organizing data at once and manually deleting unwanted spam, trash, and other files.   

Q2: How to manage the storage of a family account on Google?

The “Family Manager” – person who subscribed to the Google One family plan can monitor which family member is using how much space through “Google One.” Though they cannot directly organize or delete their Google storage space but they can monitor it and ask them to do so. 

Q3: How do I delete items from Google account storage?

To clean and manage Google Account Storage, you can either manually go to Google Drive, Photos, and Gmail one by one. Delete all old or unwanted files by multiple selection at a time. Make sure you also empty out the trash after deleting. But you can use Google One Storage Manager to access all under one platform. But it is important to archive important Gmail emails to prevent data loss from accidental deletion. 

Q4: How do I manage storage on my child’s Google Account?

Follow the steps below to manage the storage of a child’s account as a parent: 

1. Go to the Family Link App. 
2. Choose your child’s account. 
3. Scroll to Controls >> Accounts and then Privacy. 
4. Go to Account storage and organize/ clean data accordingly. 

Conclusion 

We hope you have now learnt “How to manage Google Account Storage” either across a family plan or on your child’s device. It is entirely possible to manually delete and organize one file at a time across all Gmail, Drive, and Photos. But using Google One to manage Google Storage. But with this, to ensure that you do not lose any important emails while cleaning up and managing Google Storage Settings. So safeguard your Gmail Data using a robust tool. And take complete control of the Google Account.