It's quick to run out of your free 15GB on Google Drive. Let's find out how to clean up by deleting the really unnecessary files and those in the trash
Google Drive offers plenty of space for storing your files online and the ability to sync them across all devices. The basic offer is quite generous: 15 GB free. But to make the best use of it, and make sure you have enough, you have to follow some simple rules.
The secret is an optimized management of the space kindly offered by Google Drive that only asks you to remember to do some maintenance from time to time. A 15GB space seems like a lot, but over time, saving mostly photos and videos online, and maybe a little music, can run out when you least expect it. If you follow our advice, you'll not only find it easier to find what you're looking for, but you'll also be able to put off buying additional space for a long time.
Every now and then empty the recycle bin
Even in Google Drive, as in Windows or other systems and services, when you delete files they aren't deleted forever, but they accumulate in the recycle bin. And they still take up space. To make them disappear forever - with no chance of recovering them - click on the trash icon at the bottom of the sidebar, select from the list you want to get rid of, press the right mouse button and select the Permanently delete command. You don't have to do this for every single file - hold down the CTRL button on the keyboard to select them individually. If you want to get rid of them all, press the Trash sign at the top, and select the Empty Trash command.
Sort and delete large files
The best way to quickly free up large amounts of storage space is to delete larger files that take up too much space. Google Drive lets you sort files (and folders) by size so you can get a clear picture. In the sidebar below the recycle bin, move your mouse pointer over the wording that tells you your available and current storage space. A small window will pop up with three entries: Drive, Gmail, and Google Photos. Click on Drive to see all the files in the drive sorted from largest to smallest. Select them as you did for the Recycle Bin, right-click and choose Remove: you'll move them to the Recycle Bin. Remember to permanently delete them from there as well. And, clean up in Gmail and Google Photos as well if you notice that content is eating up your space. You need to do this in the individual services, and not from Drive.
Lacking space? Involve Dropbox or OneDrive
Many other cloud services besides Google Drive offer free storage space. DropBox gives you 2GB of free space, while OneDrive 5GB of free space. Both services allow you to increase your free space by inviting other users to sign up. The idea is this: you use each of these services to store one type of file online: documents in Drive, photos in OnDrive and videos in DropBox. Then you can always move files from one service to another without any problems.
Buy extra space
If the content you want to save online exceeds Drive's free space, you just have to buy it. Click on the words Upgrade storage space on the left sidebar. Google offers you the various options. Si parte da sottoscrizioni di 100GB fino a 30TB. Ecco l’elenco dei vari pacchetti e costi:
- 15 GB — gratuiti
- 100 GB — 1,99 €/mese o 19,99 €/anno
- 1 TB — 9,99 €/mese o 99,99 €/anno
- 2 TB — 19,99 €/mese
- 10 TB — 99,99 €/mese
- 20 TB — 199,99€ /mese
- 30 TB — 299,99 € /mese
Inserisci le tue informazioni sui pagamenti e avrai un sacco di spazio aggiuntivo a disposizione senza dover eliminare nulla.