This manual will instruct on freeing up storage space in your Google Workspace account  (including Gmail, Google Drive, etc).

Overview

This document will take you through the various steps you should take in order to free up storage space in your Google Workspace account.  At minimum, we recommend that ALL staff perform the following steps each quarter.  For staff who receive a high volume of emails, especially those which include attached files, you may need to perform this cleanup more frequently (monthly, biweekly).

We highly recommend the use of Gmail’s “Labels” to help manage your emails more efficiently.  At minimum, having a “Keep” label  (for emails that shouldn’t be deleted) is helpful when freeing up storage space.  Additionally, creating a label for all emails you only want to keep for x amount of time, and then delete after that date, is extremely helpful.

Gmail

The following search operators are useful when trying to identify old/unnecessary emails to be deleted.

1. Emails older than x amount of time
   For the vast majority of staff, emails older than 1 year are usually unnecessary and should be deleted: 

1. In the Gmail search box, use the following operator:   older_than:#y   
   (you can also use #m for months, #d for days)
   Example:   older_than:1y   (returns all emails older than 1 year)
           older_than:90d     (returns all emails older than 90 days)
2. Click the Select All box in upper left above email results.  Note that this will only select all emails on the first page.  To select ALL email results, click on the “Select all conversations that match the search”.
3. Quickly scroll through the listed emails and uncheck anything important you do not want to delete.  (We recommend creating a single Label to use for emails you don’t want to delete. (i.e.  a Label called Do Not Delete, or **KEEP, or similar)
4. Click the Trash Can icon to delete all selected emails.
5. ***VERY IMPORTANT:  Click on “Trash” in the Gmail sidebar to go into your Trash folder.  Click “Empty Trash now”.  Until you Empty Trash Now, your storage space is not actually freed up!
   
   

2. Emails with file attachments
   File attachments are the single biggest cause of users running out of storage space.  These include attached PDFs, spreadsheets & Word documents, photos, etc.  Most of the time, users have also stored these files in NetSuite as well  (i.e. a vendor invoice or PO thats attached to the order/bill in NS, product documents attached to item records, photos/docs re: a customer TOI which are attached to the case).  Only in extremely rare instances is there a reason that old emails with large attachments should be kept in Gmail.  Best practice is to store these files in their appropriate place in NetSuite.

1. In the Gmail search box, use the following operator:   has:attachment
   Note:  Additionally you can specify attachment larger than a certain size, by adding this operator to the above:    larger:#M
   Example:    has:attachment larger:3M  (returns all emails with a file attachment larger than 3MB)
2. Click the Select All box in upper left above email results.  
   Note that this will select all emails on the front page only.  To select ALL email results, click on the “Select all conversations that match the search”.
3. Quickly scroll through the listed emails and uncheck anything important you do not want to delete. Click the Trash Can icon to delete all selected emails.
4. Click the Trash Can icon to delete all selected emails.
5. ***VERY IMPORTANT:  Click on “Trash” in the Gmail sidebar to go into your Trash folder.  Click “Empty Trash now”.  Until you Empty Trash Now, your storage space is not actually freed up!

3. Emails from AFG for marketing, etc

1. In the Gmail search box, use the following operator:    from:email@afg
2. Repeat steps b-e from above
3. ***VERY IMPORTANT:  Click on “Trash” in the Gmail sidebar to go into your Trash folder.  Click “Empty Trash now”.  Until you Empty Trash Now, your storage space is not actually freed up!

4. Emails that have a Google Drive, Docs, or Sheets attachment or link

1. In the Gmail search box, use the following operator(s):  has:drive  ,  has:document  ,  has:spreadsheet
2. Repeat steps b-e from above
3. ***VERY IMPORTANT:  Click on “Trash” in the Gmail sidebar to go into your Trash folder.  Click “Empty Trash now”.  Until you Empty Trash Now, your storage space is not actually freed up!
   
   

NOTE re: search operators -- you can use multiple search operators in order to get more specific results.  Here are a few that we recommend you use to optimize storage space:

• older_than:1y   (all emails older than 1 year old)
• has:attachment larger:5M   (all emails w/ attachment larger than 5MB)
• has:attachment larger:2M older_than:6m   (all emails older than 6 months w/attachment >2MB)
• subject:“xxx xxxx xxxxx”   (for automated emails you receive that contain a specific subject)
• from:bobsmith@email.com    (all email from a specific sender) 

For more info on Google search operators, see their documentation here:   https://support.google.com/mail/answer/7190  

Google Drive

Similar cleanup should be performed in your Google Drive as well.  This process uses slightly different search operators from Gmail, more info in Advance Searches section here:  https://support.google.com/drive/answer/2375114

NOTE:  Care should be taken when reviewing Google Drive files for deletion.  You should only delete files in which you are the Owner and that are not a shared file still in use  (such as an SOP or other shared doc)!  You should also review each individual file to ensure you’re not deleting something that may needed.  Using Folders within Drive will make this task easier.

Here are a few search operators to assist in the task:

• owner: youremail@afgdistribution.com  (always include this operator!  returns only files in which you are the owner)
• before: mm/dd/yyyy - returns emails from before ascribed date 
• type: pdf  - returns PDF files. 
  
• type: image - returns all image files
  
• type: spreadsheet - returns all spreadsheets, etc.