Picture Perfect: Tips for Streamlining Your Photo Storage
In the age of smartphones, it’s easy to amass a massive collection of photos. With every snapshot, selfie, and accidental screenshot, our storage fills up faster than we realize. Eventually, the clutter can become overwhelming, and finding the photos you actually care about gets harder. Cleaning up your photo storage not only declutters your gallery but also helps reduce your digital carbon footprint. By deleting duplicates, blurry shots, and unnecessary images, you’re not just freeing up valuable space – you’re also minimizing the environmental impact of storing data in the cloud.
Manage your Google Photos Storage
Sign in to your Google Workspace account
Go to https://photos.google.com/quotamanagement
Google offers a few easy ways to tame your photo storage with the Manage Storage tool and only photos and videos that count towards your Google Account storage will appear here.
Sharpen Your Collection
Let’s start with Blurry Photos. Google Photos uses machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms to identify blurry photos. These algorithms analyze the sharpness and clarity of each image, looking for indicators such as: Edge Detection, Focus and Contrast, Motion Blur Detection and Pixel Analysis.
These advanced algorithms allow Google Photos to quickly and accurately identify blurry or low-quality photos, helping you sort through your collection more efficiently.
Click on “Blurry Photos” in the Review and delete section. Keep your artistic shots but select the photos that don’t measure and delete.
Tackling the Space Hogs: Find and Remove Large Files
Large files, like high-resolution videos, long recordings, and uncompressed images, can quickly eat up your storage space
Click on Large photos & videos in the Review and delete section. Consider deleting any videos or photos you no longer need or have already posted on social media, as they’re likely backed up elsewhere and don’t need to take up extra space in your storage.
Scrub those Screenshots
Google’s Screenshot algorithm is a work in progress, so you may need to take a little more time sorting through these photos as it may put images that contain a screen.
Click on “Screenshots” in the Review and delete section. Keep your useful screenshots but sift through and select the ones that don’t make the cut, then delete them to declutter your collection.
Delete Duplicates
It’s common to take several shots of the same subject, hoping one will be perfect. Unfortunately, this leads to hundreds of nearly identical photos. Unfortunately, Google Photos doesn’t have a built-in tool to find duplicates, so you’ll need to do this manually:
- Browse through your photos by going to the Photos tab.
- Look for any duplicate photos or similar shots taken in bursts. Tap on each unwanted photo and hit the trash can icon to delete it.
Empty the Trash
To see the full impact of your cleanup efforts, make sure to empty the trash. Files remain in the trash for 60 days before being permanently deleted, so you won’t notice the freed-up storage space until you take this final step. Clearing out the trash ensures your hard work pays off and instantly reflects the space you’ve saved.
Select “Trash” from your library
Click “Empty trash” in the upper right-hand corner
Confirm by clicking “Empty Trash” again
By following these steps, you’ll keep your Google Photos organized, reduce clutter, and help minimize your environmental impact by cutting down on unnecessary digital storage.