For Android smartphone users, Google Drive is a pretty essential service. Today, we’re going to discuss how to handle a situation where your Google Drive storage is full, even though it seems empty.

In this modern age, many people document important moments on social media or just keep them for themselves. Most of you probably store your photos and videos on Google Drive because it’s considered safer and offers quite a bit of space.

You might think Google Drive’s storage is too large to ever be filled up, but it can happen. When it does, you won’t be able to save more files. Some Google Drive users get confused when their storage is full but can’t find any photos or videos taking up space. This often happens because files you delete don’t get removed immediately; they go to the “Trash.”

So, how do you fix a full Google Drive when it looks empty? Here are some steps to help you out.

Fixing Full Google Drive Storage When It Looks Empty

Table of Contents

Using a PC or Laptop

Here’s how you can solve the problem using a PC or laptop:

Access Google Drive Quota: Go to your Google Drive Quota page. You can find it by searching “Quota Google Drive” on Google and selecting “Google Drive: Sign-in.”
Select All Files: Press CTRL + A to select all files. This will highlight all the files so you can delete them all at once. If you want to delete only some files, you can do it one by one or by holding Ctrl and clicking each file you want to delete.
Delete Files: Right-click to open a pop-up menu and select “Delete.” You can also use the trash can icon at the top right corner.
Empty the Trash: Go to the “Trash” or “Bin” menu. This step is often forgotten. Google doesn’t delete files right away; they stay in the Trash in case you need to recover them. To permanently delete them, select all files in the Trash using CTRL + A and delete them permanently.

This will completely remove the files, and your Google Drive storage will be freed up.

Using a Smartphone or Android Device

Here’s how to fix it using your phone:

Open Google Drive App: Open the Google Drive app on your Android device. You’ll see various files like documents, videos, photos, movies, or games you’ve downloaded.
Select Files to Delete: Tap on the file you want to delete until a menu appears with options like download, share, and delete.
Delete the File: Choose “Delete” with the trash can icon to remove the file.
Empty the Trash: Files you delete go to the Trash. To delete them permanently, go to the “Trash” menu, select the files again, and choose “Delete Forever.”

This will completely remove the files, and your storage will be freed up to download new files again. You can check the remaining storage by going to the storage info in the menu.

Conclusion

Handling a full Google Drive storage issue can be done by following the steps above. Always check the “Trash” as Google keeps deleted files there for 30 days. This feature is useful in case you accidentally delete something important. Remember, the free storage provided by Google is 15GB, which is shared across all Google services linked to your account, not just Google Drive. So, if your Google Drive looks empty but is full, check other Google services that might be using up the space.

Good luck, and I hope these tips help you manage your Google Drive storage more effectively!