Google users, currently, get 15GB free storage on Google Drive, Photos as well as Gmail. Undoubtedly, a good amount of room for a basic user to keep their data! However, for those who receive heavy file attachments and get their inbox filled up to the brim in no time, 15GB doesn’t sound do much good. Don’t fret! You can still get more space in Gmail account, that too without spending on additional storage. Just a few Gmail tweaks and tricks, and your inbox will again be ready to receive more.
Let’s get started!
6 Tricks to Get More Space in Gmail Account
-
Delete Similar Mails All at Once
Removing emails one by one is certainly not handy when you want to free up space in your Gmail account. Rather, get rid of several emails in bulk. It will save a lot of your time, and hence, your headache. Thankfully, you can filter your emails to remove similar emails at one go. All you need to do is select an email and head to the “More” drop-down menu at the top bar. Select “filter messages similar to these”. Fill up the filter options in the form provided next. Select “All” from the selection drop-down list and click the bin icon.
This Gmail trick is pretty effective when you have hundreds of emails in your account.
-
Empty Trash and Spam Folders
Emails labeled as Spam or Trash get automatically removed from a Gmail account after 30 days. However, you can delete the same in case you’re running out of space. Head to labels individually and click the link provided above all listed emails. In the Trash folder, it’s “Empty Trash now.”
In the Spam folder, click the “Delete all spam messages now” link. Be careful not to delete important emails marked as spam by mistake. Have a look at the entire Spam folder before removing all messages.
-
Switch to Plain Text Emails
Plain Text emails are useful when you want more storage with simultaneously keeping a number of emails in your Gmail account. This is because Plain Text emails don’t contain heavy formatting and embedded images, unlike HTML emails. So, the next time you receive an email, set on Plain Text. Your Gmail will remember this for future emails as well.
-
Remove Files with Attachments
Emails with file attachments, especially with heavy media files, can be a huge reason for an exhausted storage in your Gmail account. But you can use a workaround to easily find and remove these emails. Enter has:attachments in the search field and click the down arrow next to the entry. You’ll get some filter options. Adjust accordingly.
In case you want to locate a specific type of file attachments, add its type to the above command. For instance, if it’s a video (MP4) attachment that you’re looking for, type has:attachments mp4
Remember that you’ll have to delete the complete email that’s got this attachment. Gmail doesn’t provide an option to remove only the attachments. However, you can do this by using Find Bing Mail, an online tool to easily manage your Gmail account.
-
Delete Old Emails
This is a no-brainer but there’s no point in keeping old emails in your Gmail inbox unless they are too important to bid farewell. It’s better to keep deleting these ones. And it’s so easy to locate and delete these messages in Gmail account. Say, you want to delete all emails you received before the last year, type older_than:1y and you’ll get a list of all emails you received one year ago. Delete these all to grab more space in Gmail account.
You may also like How to Grant Gmail Access to Someone without Sharing Your Password
-
Download Local Copies via POP
Email clients, usually, offer two protocols for managing emails; IMAP and POP. In Gmail’s case, IMAP is the default protocol. However, you can change the setting to POP anytime. IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol) syncs your email client with the mail server and any changes you make to the client get reflected in the webmail inbox. For instance, deleting an email will delete it from the webmail inbox. On the other hand, POP (Post Office Protocol) downloads your emails to your computer and the changes you make don’t happen in the webmail inbox.
To enable POP, click the gear icon in the top-right and choose Settings. Head to Forwarding and POP/IMAP on the top bar and choose your desired option in the POP download section. Click Save Changes.
While IMAP is useful because you don’t have to carry your email client with you all the time, you can switch to POP in case you are one of those who doesn’t access their email account from other computers. Besides, it will lighten up your webmail inbox and get you more space in Gmail account. Downloading the copies of your emails to your desktop will also save you the hassle of losing your important messages.
More at SoftwareVilla: The best Gmail for Android tips and tricks
