Digital Storage Spring Cleaning

Tips for Thinking Green about Your Digital Storage

On this page: Top Tips | NYU Drive | NYU Email and NYU Groups | Google Photos | NYU Websites (WordPress, Google Sites, Wikis) | NYU Box | NYU Stream | Other NYU Services | Additional Resources

Getting Started

How much NYU Google storage are you using?

To learn how much NYU Drive, Email, and Photos storage you are using in your NYU Google account:

1. Use this link to go directly to your personal Storage page. Or, log into NYU Drive and select Storage in the menu
   
2. You’ll see your storage usage and a list of your files listed from largest to smallest.
   
3. Take a screenshot or make a note of the date and your storage totals for Drive, Email, and Photos so you can admire your progress as you delete content
   
4. Delete as many of the large files as possible

Shared Content

• Review shared files, folders, and sites, and consult with co-owners before deleting them
  
• NYU Drive (Google) has two locations for shared files and folders: “My Drive” and “Shared drives.” Ignore Shared drives for now. A University-wide process for deleting them when needed is being developed and will be communicated at a later date
  

Top Tips

• For Google services, deleted content will appear in your Trash and will be removed permanently in 30 days. To view the reduction in your current storage, empty your Trash manually
  
• Focus on large files and older files first
  
• Remove duplicates and drafts
  
• Before you delete anything, be sure to follow any NYU business policies that apply to you
  
• Is this file still needed? If so, for how long? Is it in the right place? Are the sharing permissions correct? Is the ownership correct?
  
• Use these tips for reducing NYU Drive, Photos, and NYU Email clutter to quickly reduce your Google storage (highlights below)
  
• Shared content:
  • Review shared files, folders, and sites, and consult with co-owners before deleting them
    
  • NYU Drive (Google) has two locations for shared files and folders: “My Drive” and “Shared drives.” Ignore Shared drives for now. A University-wide process for deleting them when needed is being developed and will be communicated at a later date

NYU Drive

• Top Tip: See your total storage usage and a list of your NYU Drive, Gmail, and Photos files listed from largest to smallest. Delete as many of the large files as possible
• For Google services, deleted content will appear in your “trash” and will be removed permanently in 30 days. To view the reduction in your current storage, empty your trash manually
  
• To sort “My Drive” to show your oldest files at the top, toggle the arrow to the right of  Last modified so that it points up
  
• If you use Shared drives, ignore them for now. A University-wide process for deleting them when needed is being developed and will be communicated at a later date
  
• Remove hidden data from apps
  
• For any files you must keep, use this NYU tool to check the permissions and make sure you’re not oversharing

NYU Email and NYU Groups

• Top Tip: Find and delete old and/or large emails using the search bar at the top of your NYU Email inbox. To find emails larger than 5MB, search for size:5m. To find emails sent over a year ago, search for older_than:1y. (You can combine these and/or change the numbers, if you wish.) You can also find older emails by hovering over the numbers (e.g., “1-100 of…”) at the top right of the screen and selecting Oldest in the menu that opens. Note: If you use a custom inbox layout, you will need to select the numbers first, then hover over them to view the menu
  
• Unsubscribe from NYU Groups and other email groups and newsletters you don’t read
• Limit the size of attachments you send, and who you send them to
  
• In NYU Email, avoid using “reply to all”
  
• Don’t save email attachments  you receive from others to your NYU Drive

Google Photos

Set aside a little time every week to delete unwanted or duplicate photos and videos before they pile up. Here are a few tips to make things easier:

• Top Tip: In your Google Photos Settings, choose “Storage saver” (instead of “Original quality”) to allow Google to reduce the file storage size of your photos
  
• Select multiple photos or videos using the checkboxes at the top left of each file, or by holding the Shift key and mousing over multiple files
  
• Open the Trash folder and select Empty trash to watch your usage stats decrease immediately

NYU Websites (WordPress, Google Sites, Wikis)

Do you see an old site when you log into your Google Sites, Web Publishing (WordPress), or NYU Wikis account? If so, ask around to confirm no one needs it, then delete it. Contact the service’s support team if you need help.

Note: If you know of a Google Site that is no longer needed and the owner is no longer with the University, please email the name and URL of the Site to IT Communications at it-communications@nyu.edu. IT Communications will bundle the requests to have these Sites deleted.

NYU Box

1. Delete files and folders you own and no longer need
   
2. For files you keep, confirm that your permissions and security settings are appropriate and up to date, especially for any sensitive data in your account

NYU Stream

Video and audio files can take up a LOT of storage space. If you no longer need a file you created, delete it.

Other NYU Services

Looking for information about an NYU storage service not listed above? Check the following websites for more information.

• Cloud Compute, Storage, and Platform Services (Amazon AWS and Microsoft Azure)
• Compute and Storage Hosting (Client-Managed) and Compute and Storage Hosting (NYU IT-Managed)
  
• Databrary
  
• Desktop as a Service (Amazon WorkSpaces)
  
• Faculty Digital Archive
  
• File Sharing (Windows)
  
• Google Cloud Platform (GCP) (right column)
  
• HPC Research Project Space
  
• NYU.edu Web Content Management System (CMS) and Digital Asset Management repository (DAM)
  
• Research Cloud
  
• Research Workspace
  
• Spatial Data Repository
  
• Secure Research Data Environment (SRDE)

Some schools and units offer local storage services, some of which are listed in the ServiceLink Service Catalog (login required). Contact your local IT staff for more information.

Additional Resources

• NYU Google Services: What uses your storage space (NYU IT)
  
• NYU File Storage Services Comparison (NYU IT)
  
• Best Practices on HPC Storage (NYU High Performance Computing)
  
• Manage files in your Google Drive storage (Google)
• How to make a PDF smaller and reduce file size (Adobe)