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From drive.google.com, Drive is reporting that I've used 138.39GB of my drive space. However, from my HD (using MacOS) my machine is reporting that my Google Drive folder is 121.3GB in size.

To be clear, my folder was ~176GB full but I deleted numerous duplicate photos and videos. This shrunk my local folder down to 121GB. At first I assumed my folder changes were not synced. However, after review my drive online, I can see that the files were properly deleted.

As an attempt to fix this, I emptied both my Trash Bin on my Mac and in Google Drive. This did not fix my storage usage space. Also, I did this a good while ago, just in case numbers needed to shift and sync within Google, so I think my Drive account thinks I am using 138GB.

How does Google Drive calculate your space usage and how can I get it to truly sync with my local Google Drive folder?

RLH
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2 Answers2

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If you have not done yet, please read Manage files in your Google Drive storage.

Some highlights:

  1. Some third-party apps and other devices like Android phones might be using Google Drive for backups and those files might be hidden on the web and not synced to your devices through Google Drive for Desktop.
  2. Google Documents, Sheets, Forms, Drawings, Scripts and Presentations are not downloaded to your device storage unit. The file shown is only a small file including the URL of the file on the web. NOTE: These files used to not consume Drive storage but that changed the last year for consumer accounts and will change on this February for Google Workspace / G Suite accounts.

From the above link

Storage differences in Google Drive

Items in Google Drive for desktop take up a different amount of space than the same items in drive.google.com.

  • Items in your Trash take up space in Google Drive, but aren't synced to your computer.
  • Shared items will take up space on your computer, but not Google Drive.
  • Items that are in multiple folders will be synced to all folders on your computer, taking up more space.
  • If you only sync some folders to your computer, the storage on your computer will be less than what is shown on Google Drive.
  • Your computer may show a slightly different file size than drive.google.com because of Mac or PC requirements.
Wicket
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There are bugs in Google Drive

I discovered there were GBs of previously deleted file (not in the trash) that were counting against my total space. I will explain how to permanently delete those "ghost" files and recover the space. But first, let's exclude some of the most obvious causes for a reduced storage space.

The files in the trash are included in the calculation of the space, so empty the trash.

The used storage reported in Google Drive includes space taken up by other Google apps (Mail, Photos) and space taken up by third-party apps (WhatsApp backups are an example).

Go to https://one.google.com/storage and check the storage consumed by Google Drive, Gmail, and Google Photos. Maybe Google is right, and the space is taken up by some other application.

To Remove Hidden App Data click Settings in Google Drive, then click Manage Apps. Finally, press the button Options that appears next to each application name and select Delete hidden app data if available.

Get rid of the ghost files

If you have reached this point, I assume you have confirmed that the extra space indicated by Google Drive is unjustified. Below, you can find the steps to permanently delete some hidden files.

  1. Back up your data.
    We are going to erase the entire drive, the visible and hidden files, so it's time to back up your data.

  2. In the search box, write: "Type: Folder" (there is a space after the colon sign).
    You will see all the folders in Drive, including some ghost folders that do not show up in the app or in the computer. Select all folder and delete them. Empty the trash.

  3. In the search box, write: "is: disorganized owner: me".
    You should now see all of the orphaned files. Delete all the files and empty the trash.

  4. Click on "Storage" on the left.
    You will see all the files that remain in Drive. Scroll down to reach the last file. Select all files and delete them. Empty the trash.

  5. Wait. It may take some time for Google Drive to update storage usage.

In the previous steps, if you receive an error when emptying the trash you can select all the files in the trash, then right-click and select Delete Forever.

ePi272314
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