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Google Workspace Tips for Storage Hygiene

Remove or transfer any personal/private/non-UCLA emails, photos and files to your personal/non-UCLA account(s).

UCLA Google Drive

  • There are several ways to clean up your Google Drive files and folders to reduce storage and stay organized. To begin, you should check how much storage you are using in your account. To check your current storage usage, navigate to the account's storage overview.  
  • If you have files or folders that you no longer need, one option is to delete them from your account. IT recommends the following ways to delete files/folders. (This is not an exhaustive list, so please use whatever way works best for you, even if it’s not listed here.) 
    • Delete files by size
    • Delete files by date 
    • Transfer ownership of files/folders you own 
    • Delete files from Trash 

UCLA Gmail

  • Delete emails by size 
    • Enter “has:attachment larger:10MB” (without the quotations) in the Gmail search field at the top of the page and press Enter. 
      • If this produces too many results, you can change the 10MB to a larger size, such as 15MB or 20MB.
    • Select specific emails and delete them individually or delete all search results in bulk.
  • Delete emails by date.
  • Delete emails from Spam. 
  • Empty the Trash.

UCLA Google Takeout

You can use Google Takeout to transfer your Google Workspace at UCLA @ucla.edu/@g.ucla.edu e-mail and Drive data to another Google Account that you own. For more information please see:

Copy content from your school account to another account

Schedule time with an IT professional via googleworkspace@ucla.edu to get personalized assistance.

You may also view all of the Google Workspace for UCLA Knowledge Base Articles related to this initiative for further support.

Consider using a Shared Drive (vs. Personal Drive) for collaboration on projects and across departments.

Think of Shared Drives (formerly known as Team Drives) as a space where teams can easily store, search, and access common files anywhere, from any device. Unlike files in My Drive (i.e., your regular Personal UCLA Google Drive), files in a Shared Drive belong to the team instead of an individual. Even if team members leave, the files stay put so you—and the rest of the team—can continue to access information and get work done. 

Request a Shared Drive

Back up and migrate your Google Workspace data.

It is recommended that you use Google Takeout to transfer your Google Workspace at UCLA @ucla.edu/@g.ucla.edu e-mail and Drive data to another Google Account that you own. Please see the Copy content from your school account to another Google article for details.

Google also provides a quick way to download all of your Google Workspace data to your computer with their Google Takeout backup service. Please see the How to download your Google Data Google article for details.

While Google Takeout is the recommended method for migrating your Google Workspace data, there are additional methods to back up your data manually.

Visit the Backing Up Your Google Workspace and Other Data knowledge base article for detailed instructions on how to use Google Takeout to migrate your Google Workspace data and other options to back up your data.