The message ‘ Your Gmail account is running out of space ‘ is popping up on more and more Android devices. It is not by chance, but it is derived from a change that the company made a few months ago with Google Photos. Today we tell you why this message appears, what you can do to solve it and how to have more space available in your Gmail account . You may need to clean up to give it a break, if only temporarily.
Why are you running out of space in Gmail?
On June 1, 2021, Google changed its strategy with Google Photos and the services added to Gmail emails. In the past, Google Photos backup in standard quality did not take up space in your Gmail account and was unlimited. This changed for the worse, since from the date we mentioned everything you upload to Google Photos does take up space.
When you create a Gmail account, Google gives you 15 GB of free space on their servers. These 15 GB before June 1 were only used for Google Drive, Gmail and little else. Now Google Photos comes into play with all the photos you make backup from June 1.
Now that many users have continued to use Google Photos in the same way as before, they encounter a small problem: all the photos and videos from June 1 begin to occupy space of the 15 GB , which are gradually running out .
You may have been using Google services for years without space problems with these 15 GB, but things change when all the photos and videos you take with your mobile come into play.
How to free up space in the Gmail account?
Chances are, you’ve been using Google’s free 15GB for years inefficiently. The funny thing is that until now you have not had space problems. If you’ve done it like this, we have good news for you: you can probably free up a lot of space occupied by things you no longer need.
The Google One service offers a storage manager that tells you how you are occupying space and what things you can delete. You can enter from here and take a look at the recommendations on this page.
Most likely, you have a few GB occupied by emails from Gmail and as many by Google Photos. If throughout your life you have never deleted emails from Gmail, there you will have a few GB to free with a simple click.
You can also free up Google Drive space . If you’ve never done cleaning, you may have quite a few large, forgotten documents that you don’t need. You may be able to scratch another few MB of this service. Or GB if you have used it a lot in the past.
From the space occupied by Google Photos, you may not want to delete anything, as these will be your personal photos and videos. Still, we recommend you take a good look to see if you can delete very large files that you don’t need.
You will need more space in your Gmail account
If you use Gmail a lot and want to continue making your backup copy in Google Photos, we have bad news: freeing up space will only be useful for a while . Sooner or later you will end up occupying the free 15 GB of your Gmail account with photos from Google Photos.
What will happen when you can no longer delete anything else and everything is useful? Either you start backing up your photos to an alternative to Photos or you pay for more space on Google One . The big G has monthly plans that you can pay for to have more space in your Gmail account. They are as follows:
- 15 GB: free
- 100 GB: 1.99 euros / dollars per month
- 200 GB: 2.99 euros / dollars per month
- 2 TB: 9.99 euros / dollars per month
These plans can be paid annually to save some money, although they also have a problem. As you store content, you will need a higher plan and you will end up paying a good amount.
If you don’t want to pay, forget about Google Photos
Of all the Google services that take up space, Google Photos is the one that takes up the most. If you want to have your Gmail account with free space, it is highly recommended that you forget to make the backup copy in Google Photos, at least if you do not want to pay.
One of the best alternatives is Amazon Photos , a free service for Amazon Prime users with unlimited copying . It has an application, the copy is done automatically and it is a highly recommended service. Google Photos is better, but sooner or later it will stop being free for you.
