My Gmail account has reached its maximum capacity and I can no longer receive any emails. This issue is mainly due to the numerous photos and videos I’ve stored over the years. I’m uncertain of the best approach. Should I consider purchasing Google’s additional storage plan for more space? Alternatively, would it be wiser to transfer everything to an external hard drive or a different cloud service and then remove the old items from Gmail? I’m also curious if there are any free methods to tidy up my account without losing any important files. Has anyone faced this problem before? What solutions worked best for you - increasing your storage or relocating files elsewhere?
Had this exact problem last year and went with Google One. Was hesitant about the monthly fee at first, but it’s honestly the easiest fix. The 100GB plan’s cheap and solved everything instantly - no hours spent digging through old emails. What sold me was realizing the storage covers Gmail, Drive, AND Photos, so you get way more value. I did try Gmail’s storage tool first though - it shows your biggest emails and attachments. Cleared about 2GB just deleting old promotional stuff with heavy attachments. If you don’t want to pay monthly yet, start there and see how much junk you can dump.
I encountered a similar issue with my Gmail account. I opted for Google Takeout to create backups of my essential files before proceeding to delete large emails, photos, and attachments that I no longer needed. This not only cleared up space but also maintained important documents securely. Additionally, reviewing your Google Drive can reveal unnecessary items taking up storage. For added safety, I recommend transferring crucial files to an external hard drive to ensure nothing important gets lost during the cleanup.
start by clearing out old emails with big attachments - your sent folder can really eat up space. I switched to Amazon Photos, it’s free with Prime and way cheaper than Google One if you’re already paying for it.