How To Get Another 15gb Of Gmail Storage For Free (and Without Losing Old Files)

Elyse Betters Picaro / ZDNET

Every caller Google email relationship comes pinch 15GB of free retention -- a coagulated connection astatine nary cost. However, that abstraction tin capable up fast, particularly since it besides covers files successful Google Drive and Google Photos.

If your inbox is cluttered pinch unread newsletters and sneaky spam, there's a measurement to cleanable location without losing important messages. With nan correct approach, you tin sphere what matters while giving yourself a caller start.

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There is ever nan action of manually cleaning retired your Gmail inbox aliases downloading immoderate worldly to your section drive. What a pain, though, right? And, chances are, you'll only destruct truthful overmuch junk earlier those gigabytes commencement stacking up again.

I should statement that Google offers a measurement to pay for much storage by upgrading to a Google One account. The "Basic" scheme costs $24 per twelvemonth for 100GB. The free solution, however, lies successful taking a fewer steps to backmost up your basal files and reset your information capacity.

1. Back up your files, astatine slightest temporarily

If you're going done this process, you're apt superior astir retaining emails that could span years. So, arsenic an added information measure, it's a bully believe to backmost up your emails connected your machine aliases an outer difficult thrust earlier transferring them backmost into nan cloud.

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To do this, spell to Google Takeout and prime "Google Photos" and/or "Drive" arsenic nan products you wish to export, past travel nan prompts. (Once you've completed nan transfer, you tin delete and free up your difficult disk thrust (HDD) for different uses.) Be alert that this process tin return a while, depending connected your amount of emails and number of gigabytes. To springiness you an idea, CNET's Jason Chun utilized Google Takeout pinch a trial Gmail relationship that held astir 75,000 emails, and this wholesale download took astir 2 hours to complete.

2. Prepare to transportation your Gmails to a caller email account

Now that you've saved a transcript of your emails, it's clip to transportation them. To do this:

1. Log into your original Gmail relationship and click nan cogwheel icon successful nan apical correct corner. Then click "See each settings."

2. Select nan Forwarding POP/IMAP tab. Then prime nan action "Enable POP for each mail." (POP stands for Post Office Protocol).

3. You'll person respective options nether "When messages are accessed pinch POP." Select delete Gmail's transcript to automatically delete nan emails from your original relationship aft nan transfer.

4. Select "Save changes."

3. Create a 2nd (archive) relationship and transportation your messages

At this point, you tin create your caller relationship and transportation each your messages there: 

1. To create a caller inbox-zero Gmail account, go here. This caller 1 will service arsenic your archive account. 

2. Log into your caller archive account, click nan cogwheel icon successful nan apical right, and prime "See each settings." 

3. Select nan Accounts and Import tab astatine nan top. Then prime "Add a message account" adjacent to "Check message from different accounts."

4. In nan pop-up window, participate nan sanction of your original Gmail account, past prime "Next." 

5. Select "Import emails from my different relationship (POP3)," and past prime "Next" again.

 6. Enter nan password of your original Gmail account.

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Note that you mightiness besides request to whip up a impermanent Google app password to sync nan accounts. So, if your original Gmail relationship password doesn't activity astatine this step, sojourn https://myaccount.google.com/apppasswords to create a impermanent 16-digit passcode.

Simply create a sanction for nan password, specified arsenic "Email Transfer," past deed "Create." A pop-up model pinch your caller 16-digit passcode will display. Here, you should jot it down aliases return a screenshot until you tin discard this password. Google will only show it to you once!

 7. Once you've synced your accounts, find Port and prime "995."

 8. Next, you'll want to cheque 3 boxes:

• Always usage a unafraid relationship (SSL) erstwhile retrieving mail

• Label incoming messages

• Archive incoming messages (Skip nan Inbox)

  9. Finally, prime "Add account."

What's next, now that your accounts are synced?

The email migration process will automatically statesman aft successfully connecting your caller Gmail archive relationship to your superior account. How agelong this takes besides depends connected nan measurement of emails being transferred. For example, CNET's trial transportation of 75,000 messages recovered that it took astir 2 afloat days to complete nan transportation of each messages and media to a caller archived message account.

Once that measurement is complete, your original Gmail relationship will flip each your messages into nan Trash folder, which you must quiet manually. According to Chun, deleting 75,000 messages from nan Trash took astir an hour.

Further, support successful mind that Gmail will not transportation your Drafts and Spam folders. In my opinion, this is simply a bully point for nan latter, but do beryllium judge you don't person immoderate loose-end messages hanging astir successful your Drafts folder. You tin ever email them to yourself to decorativeness later.

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At this point, location are 3 last steps to extremity nan automatic transportation process truthful that you tin proceed utilizing your original account, starting anew astatine inbox zero.

1. Login to your caller account. Click nan cogwheel icon and prime "See each settings."

2. Select nan Accounts and Import tab. Under "Check message from different accounts," prime "Delete" for your original account.

3. Select "OK" erstwhile prompted to "Confirm delete message account."

Following nan steps supra is astatine slightest little daunting of a chore than manually sifting done countless messages and media to find what you want to support for eternity. Now you tin bask nan long-forgotten acquisition of having a cleanable caller inbox while maintaining years' worthy of older worldly -- pinch 15 free gigabytes to go.