By Nikhil Azza
Publication Date: 2026-03-06 12:00:00
For a lot of users, Google Photos has always been running quietly in the background. With backup and sync on, it feels like a safe option.
I never thought about the process. All I cared about was that my photos were getting backed up, everything was organized, and I could access my memories when needed.
The problem was that I hadn’t realized how close my storage already was to the limit, sitting at around 1.97TB.
I found that right before my nephew’s birthday, when I was given the hefty task of taking photos. After shooting hundreds of photos and several long videos in a single afternoon, I pushed my already near-full storage over the edge.
To free up storage, I assumed deleting the photos I no longer need would help, but I discovered that Google Photos operates on a different set of rules than I was unaware of.
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