Secret codes you can use in Gmail to free up storage space
Email is an essential tool in the daily lives of millions of people, with Gmail being the most popular email service in the world. This service offers a large storage capacity, but it is not unlimited. Over time, messages, attachments, and shared documents can fill up the available space, making it difficult to use.
In this case, Google offers options to expand your storage, but there are also free ways to quickly free up space. Gmail offers 15GB of free storage shared between email, Google Drive, and Google Photos.
- How to free up space for free?
Large attachments are one of the biggest space hogs in Gmail. Photos, presentations, and videos can take up several megabytes each. To find and delete these emails, there’s a trick that uses an advanced search command to identify old or heavy messages that are taking up unnecessary space: Type Size:3m into the Gmail search bar.
This icon reveals all emails with attachments larger than 3MB. Once you have identified them, review whether these emails are necessary. If not, delete them and then empty the trash, as deleted emails continue to take up space until they are permanently deleted.
Another code is older_than:1y , which allows users to find emails that are older than a year. Changing the number can broaden or narrow the search to find messages older than two years or six months, respectively. For example, 2older_than:2y or older_than:6m .
Not only does this process save space, it also simplifies the process of organizing your inbox. By getting rid of old emails, you can reduce the number of unnecessary messages and make it easier to find important information.
The third symbol is from : (x) , which allows you to filter all emails from a specific sender where you put the sender's name or email address in place of X.
After running the command, you will be able to select and delete all emails in the specified category. This method is especially useful for those who receive newsletters, social media notifications, or automatic updates that they do not check regularly.
It is important to briefly review messages before deleting them to ensure that no relevant information has been deleted. Once deleted, remember to empty the trash to free up all the space.