Find out how to fix this problem and get free storage, at least for now.
Surely you know that from your Google account you can store a large number of files, whether they are documents or images. As of June 1, 2021, Google Photos storage is no longer free and unlimited. All those images and videos that are saved in Google Photos from that moment are deducted from the storage, and sooner or later the time will come when they fill the 15 GB that Google gives free.
But you can try to work around this problem and get free storage, at least for now. The solution is very simple, you just have to do a thorough cleaning. Surely if you check well you realize that there are many files that can be deleted from your account.
Google Deep Clean
The first step is to eliminate expendable videos and images such as repeated photos, blurred images or screenshots. From the Google Photos application itself, you can get rid of the images that you no longer need to store. You need to tap on your profile picture, ‘Photo settings’, then tap on ‘Backup and sync’ and tap on ‘Manage Storage’. At the top is the ‘Large photos and videos’ option, which you can review if you have any videos you can do without.
From the previous section you can also access other elements that can be deleted. Screenshots, blurry images are usually material that can be removed. It is possible to stop including the screenshots and photos of applications in the copy of Google Photos, in this way you can save some space. You have to review the ones that are going to be deleted, since many times the screenshots are not necessarily screenshots, they can be images that Google Photos thinks are screenshots even though they really are not.
You should also forget about using Google Drive as storage. It is preferable to keep the documents that are strictly necessary and not abuse this space, since it is small. The same goes for emails, surely more than one stores a large number of messages in Gmail without realizing the amount of space they are losing. Most emails barely take up storage, but you may have a large number of emails that are taking up a lot of space in your inbox.
After cleaning, you must remember that the deleted files go to different bins of Gmail, Drive or Google Photos. If you are sure that everything deleted can be deleted, you can empty the bins instead of waiting 30 or 60 days for the files to be deleted automatically. It is true that the cleaning trick will not work forever and you will have to resort to the payment option, but the longer that moment is delayed, the better.
Convert everything to ‘savings’ quality
Set your Google Photos backup to reduced quality, now called ‘Storage Saver’. Do not forget that if you change your mobile you can change this option, check that the backup is not being made in ‘original quality’, which takes up much more space than necessary.