Google Drive Says Full But No Files? Fix It Here

Does your Google Drive indicate the storage is full even though you have ample free storage? Are you unable to create new files on your Google Drive account due to these erroneous disk space calculations? If you’re wondering what’s wrong with your Google Drive, here are some most common possibilities and their resolutions.

Verify your Storage from Google One

Your Google Drive is an integrated part of your Google One account. As such, your Google One account’s storage space information reflects the total storage available, the part of storage space occupied by each Google service, and other relevant information.

Go to the Google One Storage page where you’ll get an overview of the storage stats, and find whether Google Drive storage space appears lower compared to other Google products.

Delete Gmail File Attachments

Another element that eats up Google Drive storage space is Gmail attachments. Over years of using Gmail for communication for personal and business use, you might have accumulated a large chunk of emails with file attachments. Even though these files may be smaller in size, they collectively occupy a large space of your account. You may want to find email attachments that are older than 3 years and then delete them.

Fortunately, Gmail provides you an easy way to locate old emails using personalized search. Using a few search parameters, you can find emails by their dates, by their sizes and other parameters.

To find emails sizing more than 100 KB, type:

• larger_than:100kb

To find emails that are 1 MB in size, type:

• size:1mb

To get a list of all emails with file attachments, type:

• has:attachment

Delete Orphan Files

Deleting files from your Google Drive account is simple and straightforward. Just right-click a file and select Remove. However, this doesn’t work all the time. Sometimes, it results in orphan files which are not visible to the user, however continue to take up your storage quota. To find such orphan files, just type:unorganized owner:me and press Enter.

If any orphan files are found, you can review them and take appropriate action.

Delete Hidden App Data

Nowadays, many apps integrate themselves to use your Google Drive storage to store app-specific data. For example, instant messaging apps such as Line allow you to backup your chat messages and conversations to Google Drive. Unfortunately, we don’t realize the shrinking storage occupied by these apps as this information is not easily displayed. You’d need to delete hidden app files and un-link your chat messenger service and other apps from using Google Drive as the storage platform.

1. Open Google Drive from your web browser.
2. Click on the Settings icon on the upper right corner.
3. Select Settings.
4. In the new dialog, click on the Manage Apps tab.
5. You will now come across apps integrated with your Google Drive account and the storage space they’re occupying. Click on the Options drop-down box in front of an app and select Options and then click Delete hidden app data.

Delete the Trash Contents

If you aren’t regularly cleaning the Trash, it may accumulate so many junk files and eventually your Google Drive will run into low storage issues. Delete these files to empty the Trash and free-up your storage.

On PCs:

1. Open Google Drive.
2. Click on the Trash section on the left hand side panel.
3. Click the Empty trash button on the top-right and select Delete forever.

On Android:

1. Open the Google Drive app.
2. Tap the three parallel lines Menu icon.
3. Select Trash.
4. Select all the files you want to delete and then click on the Menu icon.
5. Select  Delete forever.

On iPhone:

1. Open Google Drive.
2. Tap the Menu icon.
3. Select the Bin option.
4. Tap the three-dots icon on the upper right corner of your screen.
5. Select Empty Bin.

Sign-Out & Sign-In Again

Try signing out and signing in again to see if that resolves your issue.

Delete Browser Cache

Corruption of the browser cache can also contribute to this issue. It may be possible that your web browser loads a cached version of the page. Deleting your web browser’s cache might solve this problem.

Google Chrome:

1. Click on the Menu icon (three vertical dots).
2. Select History.
3. Select Clear Browsing Data.
4. In the new pop-up window, select your preferred time range.
5. Check the following options:
   • Cookies and other site site data
   • Cached images and files
6. Click on Clear Data.

Mozilla Firefox:

1. Click on the Menu icon.
2. Select Library, followed by History.
3. Select Clear recent history.
4. Select your desired time range.
5. Check the boxes Cache and Cookies.
6. Click on Clear Now.

Microsoft Edge:

1. Click on Menu, followed by Settings.
2. Select Clear browsing data.
3. Select the following options:
   • Cookies and saved website data
   • Cached data and files
4. Click on Clear.

Apple Safari:

1. Press Command + Y simultaneously.
2. Click on Clear browser history.
3. Click on Clear History to confirm.

Try Incognito Mode

Alternatively, try signing in to the Incognito Mode to see if that helps.

Google Chrome:

1. Click on the Menu icon.
2. Select New incognito window.

Mozilla Firefox:

1. Click on the Menu icon.
2. Select New Private Window.

Microsoft Edge:

1. Click on the Menu icon.
2. Select New InPrivate Window.

Android:

1. Tap the Menu icon (three dots).
2. Select New incognito tab.

iPhone:

1. Open Safari.
2. Tap the Private icon at the bottom right corner of your screen.