Technologies
Save Money by Clearing Out Your Google Drive and Gmail
Follow these simple steps so you don’t pay for extra storage again.

Google Drive and Gmail are packed with some of Google’s most popular services. However, you only get a combined 15GB of storage space for free to use for all those services, which can fill up fast. When you’re close to your limit, Google will ask if you want to buy more storage. Google’s storage plans start at $2 a month, so you might be tempted to pay, but you don’t have to. There are other, free ways to manage your digital space.


Here’s how to free up Google Drive and Gmail space on desktop and mobile so you don’t have to pay for additional storage. We recommend doing this on desktop, as you’ll have an easier time sorting through and managing files rather than doing it on your mobile device.
Delete large files first
If you only want to delete a few items from Google Drive and Gmail to free up space, you can sort each service by file size and delete one or two large files instead of a few dozen smaller items.
Here’s how to delete files by size in Google Drive on your desktop:
1. Log into your Google Drive account.
2. Once logged in, click Storage in the menu on the left side of the screen.
3. The Storage page should list your files from largest to smallest, but if not click Storage Used on the right side of the screen. The files should now be ordered from largest to smallest.
4. Click large files you want to delete to select them, then click either the trash bin in the top right of your screen or drag the large files to Trash on the left side of the screen.
5. Click Trash to go to the Trash menu.
6. Click Empty Trash in the top-right corner of your screen.
7. Click Delete forever and your files are gone.
You can do this in the Google Drive app, as well. Here’s how:
1. Open your Google Drive app and log into your account.
2. Tap Files in the bottom-right corner of the screen.
3. Tap Name underneath My Drive near the top of the screen.
4. Tap Storage Used. This will arrange your files from largest to smallest.
5. Tap the three dots (…) next to the item you want to delete.
6. Tap Remove.
7. Tap the hamburger icon in the top-left corner of the screen next to Search in Drive.
8. Tap Trash.
9. Tap the three dots (…) in the top-right corner of the screen.
10. Tap Empty trash.


Whether you need to make room, or just to keep your Gmail tidy, it’s easy to make room for storage in the service.
James Martin/CNETYou can also arrange and delete files by size in Gmail on the desktop. Here’s how:
1. Log into your Gmail account.
2. Type has:attachment larger:10MB into the search bar and hit Search. This will show you all emails that have attachments larger than 10 MB from largest to smallest. You can use this format to filter by other size files, not just 10 MBs.
3. Check the boxes to the left of each email you want to delete, then click the Trash icon in the top-right corner of the screen.
4. Click Trash on the left side of the screen to go to the Trash menu. If you don’t see Trash, click More and Trash should be in the expanded menu.
5. Once in Trash, click Empty trash now at the top of the screen.
Here’s how to arrange and delete files by size in the Gmail app:
1. Open your Gmail app and log into your account.
2. Type has:attachment larger:10MB into the search bar and hit Search. This will show you all emails that have attachments larger than 10MB, from largest to smallest. You can use this format to filter by other size files too, not just 10MBs.
3. Tap into the email you want to delete.
4. Tap the trash bin icon in the top-right corner of your screen.
5. Tap < in the top-left corner of your screen.
6. Tap the hamburger icon in the top-left corner of the screen next to Search in mail.
7. Tap Trash.
8. Tap Empty trash now.
Note that once a file goes to Trash, it will automatically delete after 30 days.
Empty your Gmail spam folder
It’s easy to forget about emptying your spam folder, and it can double the amount of data your Gmail account uses. Emptying your spam folder (or your social or promotions folders) is an easy way to make space.
Here’s how to empty your spam folder on your desktop:
1. Log into your Gmail account.
2. Once logged in, click Spam on the left side of the screen. If you don’t see Spam, click More, and Spam should be in the expanded menu.
3. In your Spam folder, click Delete all spam messages now.
Here’s how to empty your spam folder in the mobile app:
1. Open the Gmail app and log into your account.
2. Tap the hamburger icon in the top-left corner of the screen next to Search in mail.
3. Tap Spam.
4. Tap Delete all spam messages now or Empty spam now.


Don’t let spam bog your Gmail down.
Getty ImagesClean up your Google Photos
Google also includes Google Photos in the 15GB of free storage it gives its users. Photos and videos can take up more space than text-based files so it’s a good idea to go through and delete old photos and videos to make room.
Unfortunately, there’s no option to arrange your photos and videos from largest to smallest like in Google Drive and Gmail, so you will have to go through and delete items manually.
Here’s how to delete photos and videos from Google Photo on your desktop:
1. Open and log into Google Photos.
2. Scroll your mouse over photos and videos you want to delete and click the gray check mark icon in the top left corner of the photo or video.
3. Click the trash icon in the top right corner of the screen.
4. Click Move to trash.
5. Click Trash on the left side of the screen.
6. Click Empty trash near the top-right corner of your screen.
7. Click Empty trash again, and you’re set.
Here’s how to delete photos and videos from the Google Photo mobile app:
1. Open and log into Google Photos.
2. Tap the photo or video you want to delete.
3. Tap the trash icon in the bottom-right corner of the screen.
4. Tap Delete.
5. Tap Library in the bottom-right corner of the screen.
6. Tap Trash.
7. Tap the three dots (…) in the top-right corner of the screen.
8. Tap Empty trash.
9. Tap Delete.
If you don’t click or tap Empty trash on either platform, the photos and videos you’ve deleted will automatically delete after 60 days.


Photos and videos in Google Photos can take up a lot of storage.
Sarah Tew/CNETWhen all else fails, download your files
If your storage is still almost full and you can’t part with any more items from your Google Drive, Gmail or Google Photos, you can download your items and store them directly on your computer.
Here’s how to download your Google Drive files for storage on another hard drive.
1. Open and log into your Google Drive account on your desktop.
2. Select the files you want to download.
3. Click the three stacked dots in the upper-right corner of your screen.
4. Click Download.
5. Once the items are downloaded, feel free to delete them from your Google Drive.
You can also download your emails from Gmail. Here’s how:
1. Open and log into your Gmail account on your desktop.
2. Click and open an email you want to download.
3. Click the three stacked dots next to the date of the email.
4. Click Download message.
5. Once the emails are downloaded, you can delete them from your Gmail.
Here’s how to download photos and videos from Google Photos:
1. Open and log into your Gmail account on your desktop.
2. Click and open a photo or video you want to download.
3. Click the three stacked dots in the top-right corner of the screen.
4. Click Download.
5. Once the items are downloaded, you’re free to delete them from your Google Photos.
For more, check out these 10 Gmail tips and tools, nine Google Drive features you might have missed and five Google Photos features to try now.
Technologies
Tariffs Explained: Latest on Trump’s Shifting Import Tax Plan, and What It Means
Technologies
Apple, I’m (Sky) Blue About Your iPhone 17 Air Color
Commentary: The rumored new hue of the iPhone 17 Air is more sky blah than sky blue.

I can’t help but feel blue about the latest rumor that Apple’s forthcoming iPhone 17 Air will take flight in a subtle, light-hued color called sky blue.
Sky blue isn’t a new color for Apple. It’s the featured shade of the current M4 MacBook Air, a shimmer of cerulean so subtle as to almost be missed. It’s silver left too close to an aquarium; silver that secretly likes to think it’s blue but doesn’t want everyone else to notice.
Do Apple employees get to go outside and see a real blue sky? It’s actually vivid, you can check for yourself. Perhaps the muted sky blue color reflects a Bay Area late winter/early spring frequent layer of clouds like we typically see here in Seattle.
«Who cares?» you might find yourself saying. «Everyone gets a case anyway.» I hear you and everyone else who’s told me that. But design-focused Apple is as obsessive about colors as they are about making their devices thinner. And I wonder if their heads are in the clouds about which hues adorn their pro products.
Making the case for a caseless color iPhone
I’m more invested in this conversation than most — I’m one of those freaks who doesn’t wrap my phone in a case. I find cases bulky and superfluous, and I like to be able to see Apple’s design work. Also, true story, I’ve broken my iPhone screen only twice: First when it was in a «bumper» that Apple sent free in response to the iPhone 4 you’re-holding-it-wrong Antennagate fiasco, and second when trying to take long exposure starry night photos using what I didn’t realize was a broken tripod mount. My one-week-old iPhone 13 Pro slipped sideways and landed screen-first on a pointy rock. A case wouldn’t have saved it.
My current model is an iPhone 16 Pro in black titanium — which I know seems like avoiding color entirely — but previously I’ve gone for colors like blue titanium and deep purple. I wanted to like deep purple the most but it came across as, in the words of Patrick Holland in his iPhone 14 Pro review, «a drab shade of gray or like Grimace purple,» depending on the light.
Pros can be bold, too
Maybe the issue is too many soft blues. Since the iPhone Pro age began with the iPhone 11 Pro, we’ve seen variations like blue titanium (iPhone 15 Pro), sierra blue (iPhone 13 Pro) and pacific blue (iPhone 12 Pro).
Pacific blue is the boldest of the bunch, if by bold you mean dark enough to discern from silver, but it’s also close enough to that year’s graphite color that seeing blue depends on the surrounding lighting. By comparison, the blue (just «blue») color of the iPhone 12 was unmistakably bright blue.
In fact, the non-Pro lines have embraced vibrant colors. It’s as if Apple is equating «pro» with «sophisticated,» as in «A real pro would never brandish something this garish.» I see this in the camera world all the time: If it’s not all-black, it’s not a «serious» camera.
And yet I know lots of pros who are not sophisticated — proudly so. People choose colors to express themselves, so forcing that idea of professionalism through color feels needlessly restrictive. A bright pink iPhone 16 might make you smile every time you pick it up but then frown because it doesn’t have a telephoto camera.
Color is also important because it can sway a purchase decision. «I would buy a sky blue iPhone yesterday,» my colleague Gael Cooper texted after the first rumor popped online. When each new generation of iPhones arrive, less technically different than the one before, a color you fall in love with can push you into trading in your perfectly-capable model for a new one.
And lest you think Apple should just stick with black and white for its professional phones: Do you mean black, jet black, space black, midnight black, black titanium, graphite or space gray? At least the lighter end of the spectrum has stuck to just white, white titanium and silver over the years.
Apple never got ahead by being beige
I’m sure Apple has reams of studies and customer feedback that support which colors make it to production each year. Like I said, Apple’s designers are obsessive (in a good way). And I must remind myself that a sky blue iPhone 17 Air is a rumored color on a rumored product so all the usual caveats apply.
But we’re talking about Apple here. The scrappy startup that spent more than any other company on business cards at the time because each one included the old six-color Apple logo. The company that not only shaped the first iMac like a tipped-over gumdrop, that not only made the case partially see-through but then made that cover brilliant Bondi blue.
Embrace the iPhone colors, Apple.
If that makes you nervous, don’t worry: Most people will put a case on it anyway.
Technologies
Astronomers Say There’s an Increased Possibility of Life on This Distant Planet
Using the James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers are working to confirm potential evidence of life on a distant exoplanet dubbed K2-18b.

Astronomers are nearing a statistically significant finding that could confirm the potential signs of life detected on the distant exoplanet K2-18b are no accident.
The team of astronomers, led by the University of Cambridge, used data from the James Webb Space Telescope (which has only been in use since the end of 2021) to detect chemical traces of dimethyl sulfide (DMS) and/or dimethyl disulfide (DMDS), which they say can only be produced by life such as phytoplankton in the sea.
According to the university, «the results are the strongest evidence yet that life may exist on a planet outside our solar system.»
The findings were published this week in the Astrophysical Journal Letters and point to the possibility of an ocean on this planet’s surface, which scientists have been hoping to discover for years. In the abstract for the paper, the team says, «The possibility of hycean worlds, with planet-wide oceans and H2-rich atmospheres, significantly expands and accelerates the search for habitable environments elsewhere.»
Not everyone agrees, however, that what the team found proves there’s life on the exoplanet.
Science writer and OpenMind Magazine founder Corey S. Powell posted about the findings on Bluesky, writing, «The potential discovery of alien life is so enticing that it drags even reputable outlets into running naive or outright misleading stories.» He added, «Here we go again with planet K2-18b.Um….there’s strong evidence of non-biological sources of the molecule DMS.»
K2-18b is 124 light-years away and much larger than Earth (more than eight times our mass), but smaller than Neptune. The search for signs of even basic life on a planet like this increases the chances that there are more planets like Earth that may be inhabitable, with temperatures and atmospheres that could sustain human-like lifeforms. The team behind the paper hopes that more study with the James Webb Space Telescope will help confirm their initial findings.
More research to do on finding life on K2-18b
The exoplanet K2-18b is not the only place where scientists are exploring the possibility of life, and this research is still an early step in the process, said Christopher Glein, a geochemist, planetary researcher and lead scientist at San Antonio’s Southwest Research Institute. Excitement over the significance of the research, he said, should be tempered.
«We need to be careful here,» Glein said. «It appears that there is something in the data that can’t be explained, and DMS/DMDS can provide an explanation. But this detection is stretching the limits of JWST’s capabilities.»
Glein added, «Further work is needed to test whether these molecules are actually present. We also need complementary research assessing the abiotic background on K2-18b and similar planets. That is, the chemistry that can occur in the absence of life in this potentially exotic environment. We might be seeing evidence of some cool chemistry rather than life.»
The TRAPPIST-1 planets, he said, are being researched as potentially habitable, as is LHS 1140b, which he said «is another astrobiologically significant exoplanet, which might be a massive ocean world.»
As for K2-18b, Glein said many more tests need to be performed before there’s consensus on life existing on it.
«Finding evidence of life is like prosecuting a case in the courtroom,» Glein said. «Multiple independent lines of evidence are needed to convince the jury, in this case the worldwide scientific community.» He added, «If this finding holds up, then that’s Step 1.»
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