Have questions about reducing your Google Drive storage? We can help!

Many of you have been busy reducing your Google Drive storage as part of our Reshaping the Google Workspace storage project. Thank you for helping us shrink our collective, campus-wide storage.

If you’re over the default 25 GB quota and haven’t had a chance to reduce your storage, spend some time over winter break doing some spring–er, winter cleaning of your files.

Over the past few weeks, we’ve received some great questions and wanted to highlight a few. For our full list of frequently asked questions, see our Reshaping Google FAQ KB

See our full FAQ list

Q: I deleted files but when I check my total storage, it hasn’t changed. Why?

A: Once a file is deleted, it sticks around in your Trash folder for 30 days so you can recover it if needed. After 30 days have passed, the files will be permanently deleted, and you should see a decrease in your total storage usage. See this webpage to learn more about deleting and restoring files in Google Drive.

Q: Can I request a long-term quota exception for a shared drive? Or only My Drive?

A: If needed, you can request a long-term quota exception for your My Drive or a shared drive you manage. See the Prepare for Upcoming Storage Quotas KB to learn more about the exception request process.

Q: I’m over the 25 GB default quota, so I was granted a temporary, larger quota. I started moving or deleting files and noticed my temporary quota dropped. Why?

A: As you reduce your storage, you’ll notice your temporary quota will also decrease. For example, if you have 75 GB of storage, your temporary quota is 100 GB. You reduce your storage to 45 GB, and see your temporary quota is now 50 GB. This is called right-sizing. We’re right-sizing My Drive and shared drives quotas to give us added control over storage growth.

Resources

Need assistance? Have questions?

If you have questions or want to talk further, contact the Reshaping Google Workspace project team.