Easy way to delete junk in Google Photos as time runs out

Google Photos has been a life saver for budding photographers with limited storage on their mobile devices. Until recently, it was one of the few photo storage options available that hit the mark on two fronts: It’s free and there’s no limit to the number of photos you can save.

All of that is about to change as Google is gearing up to enforce its strict storage limit on all photos uploaded to the service. The change was first announced about six months ago.

Under the new rules, any photos you upload after May 31, 2021, will count towards your 15GB monthly limit. Once it expires, you’ll need to pay for additional storage through a Google One subscription. Do not worry. We have a few tricks for saving space and money.

Here are the details on Google Photos
In preparation for the change, Google released a “review and delete tool” that aims to help you free up as much space as possible. It’s important to note that you have until the end of this month to upload all of your high-quality photos. Doing so before the date will not count towards your limit.

The tool is baked into the latest version of the Google Photos app and will help you determine which photos to keep and which to remove. The tool will scan your photo collection and look for any blurry images, screenshots or large videos.

Google also launched Your Estimate, which essentially estimates when the free storage you have will run out. It depends on how often you back up your photos and videos and the average size of these backups.

“We estimate that more than 80 percent of you should still be able to store about three more years of memories in high quality with your 15GB of storage,” Google explained in a blog post.

When you start approaching your 15GB limit, you’ll receive a notification in the app and an email to let you know.

name change
The high quality storage tier is also being renamed and will henceforth be known as Storage Saver.

“While we are updating the names, your photos and videos will continue to be stored at the same quality. As always, you have the control to choose the storage option that works best for you,” Google explained.

As mentioned, you can buy a Google One subscription anytime. It upgrades your cloud storage to 100GB for $1.99 per month. For something bigger, you can pay $9.99 per month for 2TB.

If you don’t want to go through the hassle of keeping tabs on storage, there are a few alternatives.