A Gmail inbox can reach capacity faster than you might think. Cleaning is necessary to free up space. Several tools exist to track down the heaviest emails.
With several gigabytes available, it’s no wonder that most Gmail users don’t take care of their inbox management. Deleting old emails is not the most frequent activity, as is unsubscribing from newsletters and advertisements. However, it is to forget that these 15 GB of space are not reserved only for Gmail.
This volume is indeed a shared storage space between other Google services, namely Drive and Photos. However, these two products can quickly take up a lot of space on these 15 GB, to the detriment of your digital correspondence. Cleaning up Drive and Photos is of course a first response to this inflation.
Clean Google Drive
When the mailbox fills up, most Gmail users react by deleting as many emails as possible: old and useless. However, Gmail users sometimes forget that they have another lever at their disposal: the hunt for very large files on Drive and Photos – there is undoubtedly something to do, between duplicate photos and obsolete PDFs.
First of all, you need to clean up your Google Drive. See how much storage space you’re using on Gmail, Google Drive, and your photos. First, log into your Gmail account and then access the storage page located on Google Drive. You have to click on “Show details” to see the distribution of storage on the platform.
If the majority of your Google Drive storage space is taken up by Google Photos, go to Settings, then make sure the upload size is selected as « High quality » instead of « Original ». This will have the effect of compressing the shots without degrading their visual rendering too much, while limiting their weight.
Delete unnecessary and bulky emails
Confused about which emails are taking up the most space in your Gmail inbox? Click on the icon symbolizing settings, to the right of the entry and search bar. You can then search for emails with attachments and emails over a certain size, see which ones take up the most space and delete them. There are even special requests.
Empty your trash
Sending emails to the trash does not change the weight they occupy in Gmail. Admittedly, they end up being destroyed after 30 days – this allows you if necessary to catch up on a message that you ultimately want to keep. But if you are sure of yourself, you can skip this step and request an immediate, total deletion or on certain emails.
Unsubscribe from newsletters and unnecessary information
It is very important to take into account that some sites ask you to check the box “receive newsletters” or promotion on certain products when creating your account. To avoid unnecessary storage, consider limiting newsletter emails and to unsubscribe from them — the ideal here remaining to avoid refraining from subscribing to anything and everything.
Do not forget that your mailbox is not a storage place, quite the contrary. If you want to store and save your documents, we suggest you read our article which explains everything about how to save your files, your work and of course your emails.