Cloud storage has proven a huge boon to modern computing, allowing us to store far more than our local systems can handle. It makes sharing and copying files a breeze and also enables platform-neutral online computing environments like ChromeOS, where you can log in to your work environment – including files and folders – from any device, anywhere in the world. It reflects a historical oscillation between “dumb” workstations and “smart” centralized computers, then smart local devices, then back. If you’ve just spent thousands on a powerful desktop device, you’re in a very different computing world than a budget Chromebook.
In all cases, however, we’ve grown to rely on cloud storage, whether it’s OneDrive, iCloud, Google Drive, Dropbox, or any of the dozens of third-party solutions available. All well and good, except cloud storage isn’t actually free and oce you’ve used up your free space, you’ll be pushed to pay a monthly or annual fee for more. I know, I currently pay for extra Dropbox storage, iCloud storage, and Google Drive (as Google One) storage.
The smart move is to manage your cloud storage usage so that you can put off paying for extra space as long as possible. 5GB seems like an enormous amount of space as the free OneDrive disk, but your computer probably has hundreds of gigabytes of storage, so it’s really not very much. You know you’re in trouble when you see this:
However, even if you haven’t run out of space, it’s worth examining what’s in Microsoft’s cloud storage system and deleting any unnecessary items. Let’s do just that…
ONEDRIVE IN SETTINGS
A good place to start is in Settings. Go to Home, then scroll down to find the section that shows your current Cloud storage allocation:
As you can see, I’m almost halfway on my 5GB allocation, with 2.2GB of space used. Since this can be used for Outlook attachments and Office 365 document storage, I want to ensure it’s as slim as possible. What you don’t want to do at this point, however, is click on “Get more storage” because that’s Microsoft seeking to sell you more space.
It is quite a good deal if you really need more space, but let’s try cleaning things up before you make that decision!
Instead, click on “Manage cloud storage” a bit further down the page. You’ll see your storage usage again:
Click on the “V” adjacent to the storage allocation information, and the pane will open to reveal more information:
This is really useful because you can see where you need to go to proceed. If you have lots of Outlook attachments, you can manage them from within Outlook. Check: Manage Large Attachments in Outlook.
My space is all being consumed by files, photos, and folders in OneDrive. Let’s address that.
ONEDRIVE ON THE WEB
TO proceed, click on the word “OneDrive” under the allocation bar. It’s a sneaky shortcut to onedrive.live.com, taking you directly to the storage allocation view in your Web browser:
Basically the same information, but now I’m directly interacting with the OneDrive service. That means I can click on “OneDrive” on the “Free up space” line and dig into my file collection. However, for reasons that aren’t obvious, OneDrive tends to hide file size information. You can dig it up in a variety of ways, but I prefer what Microsoft apparently calls “view 37”:
You can type in the URL or simply click on that image to go to that view, where you’ll find a list of all your files and photos sorted largest to smallest:
Where’s the filesize information? Off the right side of the window! Scroll the file listing area to the right and you’ll find the sizes:
Yes, it’s clumsy having to scroll left and right to figure out the size of these various files. Fortunately, you can click on the three horizontal lines icon to change the view (and remind you of what the files contain):
Reading the filename info, it looks like all my largest files are .MOV movie files from 2015! I can definitely copy them into local storage or remove them. Since I have backups, I’ll opt for the latter, after switching into “Compact list” view…
Hovering the cursor over an entry offers a radio button, which can be chosen to include it in a bulk action.
READY TO DELETE THE BIGGEST FILES
Since I’m not interested in saving these larger MOV files, I can select a bunch of them, starting with the 14 biggest, which shows up like this:
I can share them, move them to somewhere else, copy them, even download the selected files or photos, but I know I have copies, so I’ll choose “Delete” from the now-visible toolbar.
I’m good to proceed, which is done with a simple click on “Delete“. After a few seconds, the view changes (you might have to reload the page) and you should have more available space in OneDrive:
Notice in the above, I’ve gone down from 2.2GB used to 1.5GB used, freeing up 0.7GB (approx. 700MB). Not a lot, but I’d rather manage the space than have to pay for more, personally.
And that’s it. You can pay for more storage if you want, but isn’t it better to manage your OneDrive space?
Pro Tip: I’ve been writing about the Microsoft online universe for many years. Please check out my Windows help area to find many hundreds of other useful tutorials! Thanks.
