Google Drive full? Where the space goes, and how to get it back
Your Drive says it's full, but nothing in it looks that big. The space is almost always hiding in a few predictable places. Here they are, in the order that frees the most space for the least effort.
First: what counts towards your storage
Your Google storage is one pot shared by Google Drive, Gmail and Google Photos: 15 GB on a free account, more on a paid plan. A full Drive can be full because of your email or your photos, so start by looking at the split on one.google.com/storage.
Google Docs, Sheets and Slides created or edited since June 2021 count too. Files in Shared with me don't: they use the space of whoever owns them.
1. Empty the trash
Deleted files still count until they leave the trash. Google empties it after 30 days, but a big clear-out can sit there for weeks. Open Trash in Drive and choose Empty trash. It's usually the quickest space you'll ever get back.
2. Find the biggest files
Click Storage in Drive's left-hand menu: it lists your files from largest to smallest. Old video exports, raw photos, disk images and zip backups tend to sit at the top. See how to find large files in Google Drive for more.
3. Look at whole folders, not just files
Drive doesn't show how big a folder is. A folder of ten thousand small files can outweigh your largest video and never appear near the top of the Storage list. This is where most "invisible" space lives, and where a tool that adds folders up helps the most.
4. Remove exact duplicates
The same file uploaded twice, a folder copied "just in case", a camera card imported again: duplicates add up fast, and Drive has no duplicate finder. See how to find duplicate files in Google Drive.
5. Check Gmail and Photos
In Gmail, search has:attachment larger:10M to find heavy emails. Google's own storage manager at one.google.com/storage/management also lists large Gmail attachments and large photos and videos.
Questions
Why is my Google Drive full when I can't see big files?
Space usually hides in places Drive doesn't add up for you: large folders full of small files, exact duplicates spread across folders, the trash (which still counts for up to 30 days), and Gmail and Google Photos, which share the same storage.
Does emptying the trash free up Google Drive space?
Yes. Files in the trash still count towards your storage until they're deleted for good. Google empties the trash after 30 days, or you can empty it yourself straight away.
Do files shared with me use my Google Drive storage?
No. Files in Shared with me use the storage of whoever owns them, not yours.
See it for your own Drive
TidierCloud scans your Drive and shows all of this in one place: the biggest folders with every subfolder added up, the biggest files, exact duplicates and the trash, on a map of where the space goes. It only reads, and nothing leaves your computer.
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