Google drive maintanence

I was just notified by Google Drive that I was using 14.9gb of my allocated 15gb if space.

How did that happen?? Turns out my "Documents" folder was mysteriously set to sync. I would have never knowingly made that selection. It never showed on my local google drive folder, just online.

So I was tasked with clearing out Google drive on the web.

If you've ever tried that, you know how frustrating it is. Took me hours, literally. I need to avoid this in the future.

I guess I'll have to regularly check that the documents folder hasn't been set to sync, but the trash bin is also a big issue, and can only be cleared in small bits and pieces like the storage.

Is there a better way to do this job, storage and trash bin? Can the trash bin have a set limit or be disabled altogether?

thanks

Do you mean Googles bin or on pc what are you saving if its photos and you let it compress them its unlimited sotorageyou can compress whats there and get gigs back

I don't sync my Documents folder and have never seen it automatically get added to Google Drive.

What do you mean you have to clear the trash bin in bits and pieces? If you go to the Drive site and click Empty Trash it will clear everything. However, it does take time so you may have to wait a few minutes before it actually gets empty.

PolarNettles said:

What do you mean you have to clear the trash bin in bits and pieces? If you go to the Drive site and click Empty Trash it will clear everything. However, it does take time so you may have to wait a few minutes before it actually gets empty.

Not in my recent experience. I would select empty trash, ther display would momentarily clear, and then be replaced by a new set of files, after which the process had to to be repeated over and over.

You must have installed Backup & Sync for Google Drive. So uninstall that.
There is no automatic Syncing without that added extra.

You can still use Google Drive without that. Which is how I use it.

https://support.google.com/drive/answer/2374987

kitpzyxmsir said:

Not in my recent experience. I would select empty trash, ther display would momentarily clear, and then be replaced by a new set of files, after which the process had to to be repeated over and over.

That's what I thought as well when I had to delete a bunch of files a few weeks back. But after a few times of doing that I just waited and eventually everything did empty on its own.

Helmut said:

You must have installed Backup & Sync for Google Drive. So uninstall that. There is no automatic Syncing without that added extra. You can still use Google Drive without that. Which is how I use it. https://support.google.com/drive/answer/2374987

Thanks for the suggestion. Everything seems to be working as expected now.

The only thing that still concerns me is that Google drive online still shows over 600mb of space being occupied, even tho I have virtually cleared out everything except for the 60mb of file space I am actually taking up right now. I know it takes time for Google drive to reflect changes, as much as 24 hours, but it's been 2 days now.

PolarNettles said:

That's what I thought as well when I had to delete a bunch of files a few weeks back. But after a few times of doing that I just waited and eventually everything did empty on its own.

Perhaps I wasn't patient enough, but i thought I was giving it sufficient time. I wish I knew at the time that I could do it once and let it do it's job. The question of how my Documents folder came to be synced without my knowledge until it was too late? I just discovered that when you install/reinstall Google drive, it automatically selects the Documents, Pictures and Desktop folder for syncing.