How to Clear Gmail Storage Space to Fix Gmail Storage Full Issue?
At some point in time, almost every Gmail user faces a storage space issue. Once the Gmail quota exceeds, Google sends us a notification to clear Gmail storage space to continue receiving new emails. Google offers only 15GB of storage space to free Gmail account users, this storage space includes Drive Data, Emails, Photos, Contacts, Calendars, WhatsApp, etc. And, if you are using the same account on an android phone, then it’s possible you will get a “Gmail storage full” message quite soon.
One way to make some room for new data is to purchase additional storage, which will cost Rs 130 per month. Every month Google will make recurring payments from your bank account until you end your subscription. And, in the case in the future, you stop paying for extra storage space, then your account will reset to default storage space and you need to free up the storage below 15GB to continue receiving new emails or add new data.
Techniques to Clear Gmail Storage Space
There are three techniques using which you can free up space on your Google account:
1. Manually delete emails by date, and attachment size.
2. Download data using Google Takeout and manually delete emails.
3. Simultaneously save and delete emails to clear Gmail storage space.
Let’s discuss each technique one-by-one to free up Gmail storage space:
Delete Unnecessary Emails, Attachments, Files
The simplest technique to clear Gmail storage space is by deleting unnecessary emails, attachments, documents, photos, etc.
If in case you have connected your Gmail account to Android mobile then there is a change that Google photos have auto-synced images and videos. So, you need to remove all unnecessary photos and videos manually to free the space.
Note: Make sure to take a copy of photos before deleting them.
Now to remove unwanted files from Google Drive, open your Google Drive account and view the files in list mode. And, now delete the unwanted files one-by-one to increase Gmail storage space rapidly.
For deleting emails, you can use the search by option in your Gmail account. There are many ways of using this option but here we will demonstrate the technique to delete emails by attachment size. You can perform the same approach for other processes (delete by date, folder, sender, etc.)
Once the process is finished, all unwanted/unnecessary files will go into the trash folder (Trash files will automatically delete after 30 days) and you can empty the Trash to fix the “Gmail storage full” issue.
Backup and Delete Emails Manually
If you are deleting multiple or complete data from your Gmail account, then it is recommended to first back up your Gmail account and then delete all emails manually to free up storage space. Google provides an in-build utility known as Google Takeout to archive Gmail emails and other data.
Visit, www.takeout.google.com and proceed with the steps to take your Gmail account backup once done proceed with the below steps to delete emails.
1. Open your Gmail account
2. Click on the checkbox (as shown image) to select all emails (50 emails of the current page) or click on the checkbox in front of each email to select one by one.
3. Once selected, click on the Trash icon to delete the selected emails.
4. Go to Trash and empty it to clear your Gmail storage space.
Although, the above solution is effective when the need of taking backup manually, it has some limitations:
- Emails are backed up in MBOX format only
- Takes time in manual deletion of emails.
- Cannot backup & delete particular folder emails according to date.
Simultaneously Backup & Delete Gmail Emails
If you don’t want to go through the hassle of manual backup and deletion process to fix ‘Gmail is out of space’ issue, then use Gmail Email Extractor as an alternative solution. This utility offers a ‘delete after download’ option that deletes emails from the Gmail server while taking their backup and saving them on local storage. Some of the other great features of the tool are:
- Takes backup of multiple Gmail account.
- Save emails, drive, contacts, and calendar.
- Save emails in PST, PDF, EML, MSG, and MBOX formats.
- Choose the desired location to store Gmail emails and other data.
- ‘Delete After Download’ option to free up Gmail storage.
- Provides incremental feature to save new emails in the next attempt.
- Folder and date-range filters are available.
Steps to Clear Gmail Storage Space
First, download and install of the tool from the give button for Mac and Windows OS.
Step-1. Enter the tool’s Gmail account id and password for Login.
Step-2. Select desired email format and select the category of your Gmail mailbox.
Step-3. Next, Browse the location to store the resultant files.
Step-4. Click on ‘Delete After Download’ to enable it and hit the Start button.
Now, the tool will start taking the copy of emails in the desired format and simultaneously delete them from the server to free up the storage space of Gmail.
Final Words
When Gmail storage gets full, a user gets an error message ‘Gmail Quota exceed’ and is unable to send or receive emails or store data. In such a case, Gmail users need to clear Gmail storage space to continue receiving emails. This task can be done using 3 techniques, all listed above with step-by-step solutions.
