Gmail - Reducing Storage Used by Your Email

Overview

Reducing the amount of email stored in your Texas A&M Gmail account will reduce the overall amount of data you are storing that impacts your Google Storage. Your stored email can have a significant impact on your used storage depending on the number of emails you have and the attachments included in those emails. Some things to keep in mind:

• Archiving email is not the same as deleting it.
• Email in Gmail exists in four places. Labels do not affect where email is stored:
  • Inbox
  • Archive
  • Spam
  • Trash
• Emails in the Trash and Spam folders count against your storage. Email in these folders should automatically delete 30 days after they were put into these folders. Manually deleting email from these folders will free up space sooner.
• After deleting email, it may take some time for the change to be reflected in your Google storage use information.
• You can use the Gmail Advanced search in a variety of ways to search and filter your email. Google provides documentation on the many search operators that can be used in the Advanced Search utility.

What happens when you delete an email that has an attachment?

Delete emails in bulk

You can delete email individually or in bulk. Deleting email in bulk allows you to quickly remove email you no longer need. When deleting in bulk, make sure that you are selecting only email you actually want to delete.

1. Search or filter for email you want to delete.
2. Select the checkbox above the results of your search or filter. This will select all of the messages displayed on the current page.
3. Click the link that says "Select all conversations that match this search" to select messages not currently displayed.
4. Click the trash can icon to delete all selected messages.
5. You may be asked to "Confirm Bulk Action."

Note: If you have selected thousands of email messages to delete all at once, it may take a while to process. It is also possible that only a portion of the email messages you have selected will be deleted, and you will need to repeat this process for the messages that have not been deleted. If you are trying to delete a very large number of emails, you may need to repeat this process several times.

Searching Gmail for large attachments

1. Enter has:attachment larger:10MB in the Gmail search field at the top of the page and press enter. This will identify any email messages with attachments larger than 10 MB. If there are too many emails returned by this search, you can filter for larger attachments by changing 10MB to 15MB or 20MB.
2. Add in:all to your search to make sure  that email in all folders is being included in the search.
3. Select specific emails to delete, or delete the search results in bulk.

If an email with a large attachment is part of an email thread, you can delete just the message that has the large attachment while retaining the rest of the messages in the thread.

1. Click on the email in the thread that contains the attachment(s). It will be the message with a paperclip icon at the top of the message.
2. Click the three dots icon to the right of the email with the attachment.
3. Select Delete this message.

Deleting email by date

1. Enter before:YYYY-MM-DD in the Gmail search field at the top of the page (for example: before:2022-12-01)and press Enter. This will identify emails that were received prior to the date you entered.
2. Select specific emails to delete, or delete the search results in bulk.

Deleting email from the Spam folder

Email in your Spam folder count against your TAMU Google storage quota. We recommend that you manually delete messages from your Spam folder regularly. Once deleted, it may take some time for your storage statistics to update.

1. Click Spam in the left side menu. If Spam is not displayed, click More.
   
    
2. Select specific emails to delete or click Delete all spam messages now to delete all email in your Spam folder.
3. You can also click Delete Forever to immediately delete all selected messages.

Note: Check your Spam folder regularly to check for legitimate messages thaty may have been filtered there by mistake. If you find a message that should not have been marked as spam, select the message and click Not spam in the toolbar to prevent similar messages from being labeled as spam in the future.

Deleting email from the Trash

Deleted messages will stay in your Trash folder for at least 30 days. In some circumstances, deleted items may persist longer than 30 days. Messages in the Trash count against your TAMU Google storage quota, so you should regularly empty your Trash folder to prevent unneeded messages taking up unnecessary space.

1. Click Trash in the left side menu. If Trash is not displayed, click More.
   
    
    
2. Select specific emails to delete or click Empty Trash now to delete all email in your Trash folder.
3. You can also click Delete Forever to immediately delete all selected messages.
   
   

Note: If you are deleting a very large number of messages from your Trash folder at once, you may need to go through the process of emptying the trash folder several times. The easiest way is to click Empty Trash now until no email remains.