How to Free up Space in Gmail [4 Quick Solutions]

• What Counts Towards Storage of Google?
• How to Free up Space in Gmail [3 Common Ways]
• Alternative: How to Free up Space in Google Drive/Google Photos
• Bonus Tips: Why is My Gmail Still Full After Deleting?
• Further Reading: Backup Gmail Emails via MultCloud [Cloud & Hard Drive]
• Conclusion
• FAQs

What Counts Towards Storage of Google?

The Google storage is shared by Google Drive, Gmail, and Google Photos. It provides you with 15GB of free storage and you can distribute it in terms of your preferences. There are some example files that count towards storage:

Google Drive	Items in Google Drive, including PDFs, images, videos, Meet recordings, and Sites project files. Some files created or edited in collaborative content creation apps like Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Forms. Content in shared drives. Content in Trash until it's permanently deleted.
Gmail	Messages and attachments, including items in your Spam and Trash folders.
Google Drive	Original quality photos and videos backed up to Google Photos. Some High quality (now named Storage saver) and Express quality photos and videos backed up to Google Photos.

 

How to Free up Space in Gmail [3 Common Ways]

This section will give you 3 common ways to free up Gmail space, including purchasing more Google storage or deleting emails via Google Search or Google One.

Solution 1: Buy Additional Storage

Since Google Drive, Google Photos, and Gmail share the free 15 GB of storage, if you save many large files on Google Drive or many large photos or videos on Google Photos will influence Gmail storage. So, you can purchase more storage to solve this space limitation problem without deleting anything.

Solution 2: Delete Useless Emails via Google Search

The first idea that comes into your brain may manually delete emails and go the the "Trash" folder to permanently remove them from Gmail. This way is absolutely helpful and you can easily find what you want to delete by entering or choosing the email elements like senders, recipients, dates, and sizes in the search bar.

Solution 3: Delete Useless Emails via Google One

How to delete some hidden spam emails? Google One Storage Management Tool helps a lot on how to free up space in Gmail. It can be used to batch-delete trash emails, spam emails, and large attachments. Let's see how it works with the steps for deleting spam emails.

Step 1: Enter the Gmail Inbox interface, scroll down the page until you see the launch icon at the bottom, and click on that icon.

Step 2: Scroll down the page of Google One and click “Free up account storage” when you see it.

Step 3: Find the box titled “Spam emails” and click “Review and free up”. Then tick the emails and tap “Delete all”. After that, the spam emails will be cleared out of your Gmail in bulk.

Alternative: How to Free up Space in Google Drive/Google Photos

As mentioned before, Google storage is shared by 3 apps. If you do not want to delete emails to free up Gmail space, you can choose to delete some files or photos to free up space in Google Drive or Google Photos. Therefore, you can distribute more storage to Gmail.

 Free up Space in Google Photos

Step 1: Open Google Photos and select the photos you want to delete.

Step 2: Click the bin-shaped icon in the upper-right corner and choose "Move to trash".

Step 3: Open the "Trash" folder, select the photos, and choose "Delete permanently" in the upper-right corner. Then these photos are moved out from your Google Photos and won't occupy any space.

Free up Space in Google Drive

Step 1: Open Google Drive and choose the file you want to delete.

Step 2: Right-click the file and select "Remove" in the menu.

Step 3: Enter the "Trash" folder, select the files, and click the bin-shaped icon in the upper bar. Then choose "Delete forever" in the pop-up window. After that, the files won't take up your Google Drive storage ever.

Why is My Gmail Still Full After Deleting?

If your Gmail storage is still showing as full even after you've deleted emails, there are a few potential reasons for this:

Bonus Tips: Backup Gmail Emails via MultCloud [Cloud & Hard Drive]

As you can see, only if you thoroughly delete the emails in Gmail, you can reach the goal of how to free up space in Gmail. To be more cautious, it will be better to backup emails to another place before you delete them. By doing so, you can also access the emails if a situation needs them in the future.

In this section, the 2 best ways to manage Gmail emails are provided for you. One is using MultCloud Email Migration. It can move emails from Gmail to cloud drives like Google Drive, Dropbox, or OneDrive. On the other hand, you can use MultCloud Email Download to save Gmail emails to your hard drive. The best thing about using MultCloud is that all the emails that you plan to backup will be converted to PDFs before transfer. So, the emails can be read in an easy way.

Way 1: Move Emails from Gmail to the Cloud

Step 1: Click “Get started for free” to get a MultCloud account.

Step 2: Select “Add Email” in the left menu bar and tap the Gmail icon. After following the instructions in the pop-up window, your Gmail account is added to MultCloud. It is the same to add a cloud drive to MultCloud as long as you change the “Add Email” button to “Add Cloud”.

Step 3: Tap the “Email Migration” icon and choose Gmail and the cloud you added before in their corresponding boxes. Finally, click “Migrate Now” in the lower-right corner.

Way 2: Export Gmail Emails to a Hard Drive

To skip the step for uploading emails from your computer to the hard drive, you are suggested to do these 2 things first:

Step 1: Open Gmail and select folders or emails that you want to export to the hard drive.

Step 2: Click “Download” in the upper bar and give a name to the downloaded emails. Then click “OK” and the emails will be saved on your hard drive.

Conclusion

If your Gmail cannot perform well because it is full, you can try the 4 tested solutions on how to free up space in Gmail. Besides, it is a good choice to backup emails to another place in case you lose the emails and MultCloud can help you realize it in a free and easy way.

What’s more, MultCloud offers more functions like Cloud Transfer, Cloud Sync, and Cloud Backup. When you find your Google Drive storage is full, you can use Cloud Transfer to move some files from Google Drive to Dropbox, OneDrive, or other clouds with the “Delete all source files after the transfer is complete” option.

FAQs

What is the fastest way to clean up Gmail storage?

The quickest method to free up Gmail storage is by deleting unnecessary emails and attachments, emptying the Trash and Spam folders, and utilizing the "Find big emails" feature to identify and remove large messages.

Does deleting emails free up space on Gmail?

Yes, deleting emails in Gmail frees up storage space. When you delete emails, they are moved to the Trash folder. To completely free up space, remember to also empty the Trash folder, as emails there still consume storage until permanently removed.

Why is my Gmail storage so high?

Your Gmail storage might be high due to accumulated emails, attachments, and media. Large files, frequent emails, and lack of regular clean-up can contribute. Archiving, deleting unneeded items, and managing attachments can help reduce storage usage.

What happens to my emails when I run out of storage?

When your Gmail storage is exhausted, you won't be able to receive new emails, and existing emails may bounce back to senders. You'll need to delete or archive old emails, clear space, or consider purchasing additional storage to continue using Gmail without interruptions.