Google Photos clean-up checklist (30 minutes)

A Google Photos clean-up takes about 30 minutes if you do it in the right order: five minutes to see what is using your storage, five to empty the trash and review large videos, five for screenshots and documents, ten for duplicates and bursts, and five to set backup quality so the problem does not come back. Work on a computer at photos.google.com, keep the storage page open in another tab, and tick each item off as you go. Nothing on this list deletes anything permanently. Everything goes to the trash first, where it waits 30 days.

Before you start (2 minutes)

• Open photos.google.com in Chrome on a computer. Thumbnails are bigger and selecting ranges is easier than on a phone.
• Open one.google.com/storage in a second tab. This is your scoreboard.
• Sign in to the right account. If you have several, check the profile picture in the top right.
• Decide on one rule for the session: anything you are unsure about stays. You are clearing clutter, not making hard choices.

Minutes 0 to 5: check the storage split

The storage page shows one bar divided into Google Photos, Google Drive and Gmail, because the free 15 GB is shared by all three.

• Note the three figures. Write down the Photos number so you can compare it at the end.
• If Gmail or Drive is the big slice, this checklist still helps, but read Gmail storage full because of photos for the mail side.
• In Google Photos, open Settings and then "Manage storage" (or go to photos.google.com/quotamanagement). This page has the "Review and delete" suggestions you will use in the next steps.
• Check whether the page shows a "Recover storage" estimate. Note it, but do not press anything yet.

Minutes 5 to 10: empty the trash and review large videos

The trash first, because it is the single fastest win.

• Click "Trash" in the left sidebar. Scroll through once. Restore anything you recognise as a mistake.
• Click the three-dot menu and choose "Empty trash". Photos in the trash still count toward your storage until you do this. Google Photos trash explained has the details.
• Back on "Manage storage", open "Large photos and videos".
• Sort by size. The top of the list is usually long videos: a school concert, a whole fireworks display, a screen recording you forgot about.
• For each large video, decide: keep, download then delete, or delete. Downloading to a computer or external drive takes a moment and keeps the memory outside the cloud.
• Select the ones to remove and click the bin icon. They go to the trash.

Do not go further than the top 20 or 30 items. The point of the time box is to get the big wins, not to audit every file.

Minutes 10 to 15: screenshots and documents

Screenshots are the clutter nobody meant to keep. Boarding passes, chat snippets, recipes, error messages and parking tickets, all backed up as if they were photos.

• On "Manage storage", open "Screenshots". Google groups them for you.
• Select all, then untick the few you still need. It is faster than picking the ones to delete.
• Click the bin icon.
• Search your library for "receipt", "document" and "whiteboard". Google's search is good at recognising these. Remove what is no longer useful.
• If you use the Google Photos app on your phone, open Settings, then Backup, then "Back up device folders", and turn off folders such as Screenshots, chat app images and Downloads. This stops the clutter arriving in the first place.

Minutes 15 to 25: duplicates and bursts

This is the step that recovers the most space while losing nothing, and it is the one Google Photos cannot do for you. At the time of writing there is no duplicate finder in Google Photos. The "Blurry photos" suggestion on "Manage storage" catches a few, but it does not know that a sharp twin of the blurry one is sitting next to it.

You have two options.

By hand, for a small library or a single event:

• Pick one event in the timeline. Use the largest thumbnail size.
• Look for runs of near-identical frames. Select the run, step through it with the arrow keys, untick the one you like best, and bin the rest.
• Check file sizes in the info panel. A much smaller copy is often a re-save from a chat app.
• Stop after ten minutes. You will not finish, and that is fine. Doing the two or three events with the most bursts is still a real gain.

With a tool, for anything larger:

• Install a duplicate finder that works directly on Google Photos. Doppelgone is a free Chrome extension for desktop Chrome that scans photos.google.com for exact duplicates, similar shots and burst photos. Add it from the Chrome Web Store.
• Start the scan and close the popup. The scan continues in the background. A big library takes a while the first time, and later scans only look at new photos.
• When it is done, review the sets. Doppelgone keeps the best shot of each group (eyes open, sharp, well lit) and you can click any other photo to keep that one instead.
• Approve the clean-up. Removed photos go to the Google Photos trash for 30 days and there is a one-click undo in its settings. Favourites, videos, motion photos and photos shared with you are never touched. Your photos never leave your device.
• The free plan covers unlimited scans and 200 clean-ups. In our testing on a real library of about 15,000 photos, Doppelgone found roughly 4 GB of duplicates.

For a deeper look at the manual methods and how automated tools pick the keeper, see find similar and burst photos in Google Photos.

Minutes 25 to 30: storage saver and backup settings

The last five minutes are about stopping the library from refilling.

• In the Google Photos app on your phone, open your profile picture, then Photos settings, then Backup. Check that backup is on for the account you expect.
• Choose a backup quality for new uploads. Original keeps full resolution. Storage saver compresses to 16 MP and 1080p. Both count toward storage since 1 June 2021. If you print or crop, keep Original. If you only ever look at photos on a phone, Storage saver is reasonable. Storage saver vs original quality has the full trade-off.
• Check "Back up device folders" again and make sure only the folders you want are on.
• Leave the "Recover storage" button alone for now. Converting existing photos is permanent. Live with today's clean-up for a week, check the storage figure, and only then decide whether compressing the backlog is still necessary.
• Check for shared albums you no longer need. At the time of writing, photos shared with you do not use your storage until you save them to your library, so look for albums you saved and no longer want.

Finish: check the scoreboard

• Go back to the trash. Everything you removed today is here. Scroll it once more.
• If you are confident, empty it. If not, leave it. Google empties it automatically after 30 days.
• Refresh one.google.com/storage. The figure can take a few minutes to update, so make a cup of tea first.
• Compare with the number you wrote down at the start.

The usual pattern is that the trash and large videos give the quickest drop, and duplicates give the biggest drop that costs no memories. If you are still close to the limit after all this, free up Google storage without paying lists the remaining options, and a Google One plan starting at 100 GB is the honest fallback when you are genuinely keeping more than 15 GB of things you want.

The monthly 5-minute routine

Once the backlog is clear, a short monthly habit keeps it that way.

• Open one.google.com/storage and glance at the bar. (30 seconds)
• Open "Manage storage" and clear the "Screenshots" suggestion. (1 minute)
• Open the Google Photos trash and empty it. (30 seconds)
• Run a duplicate scan. Later scans only look at new photos, so this is quick. Approve the clean-up. (2 minutes)
• If you imported from a camera or an old phone this month, check "Large photos and videos" once. (1 minute)

Put it in your calendar on the first of the month. Five minutes a month is far less painful than a full afternoon once a year.

Frequently asked questions

How do I clean up Google Photos quickly?

Work in order: empty the trash, remove the largest videos, clear screenshots, then find duplicates and bursts. Use the "Manage storage" page in Google Photos for the first three and a duplicate finder for the last, since Google Photos has none built in.

Does Google Photos have a clean-up tool?

Partly. The "Manage storage" page suggests large photos and videos, blurry photos and screenshots to review and delete. It does not find duplicates, similar shots or bursts, which usually make up the biggest reclaimable slice.

How often should I clean up Google Photos?

A full 30-minute pass once, then a 5-minute routine monthly: check storage, clear screenshots, empty the trash and run a quick duplicate scan. After a big import from a camera or an old phone, do an extra pass.

Will cleaning up Google Photos delete my memories?

Not if you follow the steps here. Everything removed goes to the trash for 30 days first, duplicate tools keep the best shot of each set, and favourites and videos are left alone. Empty the trash only when you are sure.

What to do next

Set a 30-minute timer and start with the trash. When you reach the duplicates step, Doppelgone is free to install and scan, and the first 200 clean-ups are free. If you go past that, Pro is a one-time payment, not a subscription.