I have only just become aware that unknown to me Google has been backing up everything on my mobile phone. I got an email saying that unless I purchase additional storage my gmail account will be blocked. Now assuming this isn't a scam can Google do this? I do my own back ups to a hard drive and half what is on the phone is garbage anyway. I periodically delete the photos I don't need. Like the price offer in Costco that I copied as a reminder.

I been deleted stuff like mad from Google, all the emails have been deleted but I can only delete photos individually. I can't see any global delete function. So I don't have to spend the next few days individually deleting backed up photos one at a time is the a global delete everything command.

just turn backup off, I don't use it

19 minutes ago, Geoff914 said:

I have only just become aware that unknown to me Google has been backing up everything on my mobile phone. I got an email saying that unless I purchase additional storage my gmail account will be blocked. Now assuming this isn't a scam can Google do this? I do my own back ups to a hard drive and half what is on the phone is garbage anyway. I periodically delete the photos I don't need. Like the price offer in Costco that I copied as a reminder.

I been deleted stuff like mad from Google, all the emails have been deleted but I can only delete photos individually. I can't see any global delete function. So I don't have to spend the next few days individually deleting backed up photos one at a time is the a global delete everything command.

My advice would be -- as much as possible -- get the hell away from Google. I made that transition about 10 years ago.

4 minutes ago, scubascuba3 said:

just turn backup off, I don't use it

Is that on the phone or in the Google account?

Just got a message saying all 15GB is full. God knows why, only 2 days ago I deleted 2GB or more of photos plus all the emails.

If you have a lot of photos stored you can free up a lot of space by compressing them. Open photos, go to settings and click on "manage storage". Then go to "recover storage" and click that. Makes a big difference!

5 minutes ago, Ricohoc said:

My advice would be -- as much as possible -- get the hell away from Google. I made that transition about 10 years ago.

To be honest I only thought I had signed up for a gmail address.

2 minutes ago, Geoff914 said:

Is that on the phone or in the Google account?

Just got a message saying all 15GB is full. God knows why, only 2 days ago I deleted 2GB or more of photos plus all the emails.

Ask Gemini how to turn it off and what to do. It usually pops up in Google Photos asks me to back up and i always say no

4 minutes ago, Geoff914 said:

I have only just become aware that unknown to me Google has been backing up everything on my mobile phone.

They seem to like to turn things back on during an 'update'

also use vague terms to mislead someone into backing up things to their servers instead of your own.

This can also happen when your phone OS gets updates its a right pain.

Before removing stuff from google's servers make sure you have a backup on your own server/hard drive/SSD drive.

There is no requirement for you to use google's storage but they do set a limit on the 'free' amount of storage they allow 'free' amount

is inclusive of all the things they offer like e-mail,photos, calendar,drive etc etc etc..once you get below the limit they have set for your 'free' storage they will not block you.

I personally try my damnedest not to save stuff to Google's servers

as they keep it all forever, use it for marketing, AI training and government surveillance.

The hoops they make you jump through to turn all the stuff off is

amazing especially on the phones ..they bury those settings deep down and hard to find. ☹️ ☠️

2 minutes ago, Geoff914 said:

To be honest I only thought I had signed up for a gmail address.

Ha ha you signed up for much more than that !!!!

5 minutes ago, Upnotover said:

If you have a lot of photos stored you can free up a lot of space by compressing them. Open photos, go to settings and click on "manage storage". Then go to "recover storage" and click that. Makes a big difference!

(Note you have to access this on a pc, not on your phone).

1 minute ago, Upnotover said:

If you have a lot of photos stored you can free up a lot of space by compressing them. Open photos, go to settings and click on "manage storage". Then go to "recover storage" and click that. Makes a big difference!

Important photos I take on the digital camera backed up on the computer and a back up hard drive. I do a periodic back up of the phone to hard drive and a bit of a clear out. At least with a Samsung that option is available.

2 minutes ago, Geoff914 said:

Important photos I take on the digital camera backed up on the computer and a back up hard drive. I do a periodic back up of the phone to hard drive and a bit of a clear out. At least with a Samsung that option is available.

I do the same but like you had accumulated almost 15GB of photos on Google by not turning off the automatic backup (which is very easy to turn off). By using the recover storage option I now have only 3.7GB of photos. And as I don't add any new ones it will not increase.

25 minutes ago, Geoff914 said:

Is that on the phone or in the Google account?

turn it off on the phone.

5 hours ago, johng said:

turn it off on the phone.

Done.

3 hours ago, Geoff914 said:

Done.

Another happy AN forum customer 👍

We're here to help 😁

Beware of any email you might get that purports to come from Google or wherever, warning you about backup or additional storage or yoursubscription expiring. A lot of those are scams. They may look like they come from Google, but they don't. They're trying to get your log-in information, or yout credit card number.

21 hours ago, SAFETY FIRST said:

Another happy AN forum customer 👍

We're here to help 😁

Sorry not so soon. Right as far as I can see I have stopped back up of photos an emails from the main phone and the second phone. Second phone for phone calls as main phone wont take or make calls. Deleted all the emails from Google. So far deleted 4GB of photos. Trouble is you have to do them one at a time. Get a message today telling me the storage is full as I met the 15GB limit. WTF!!!!!!!! As fast as I am deleting them Google is backing them up even though back up is off. Triple check again I suppose.

Open your Google account with a web browser and check the 'trash' folder,its quite likely the stuff you thought was deleted is in the trash and still being counted in the 'free'

storage allocation.

7 hours ago, Geoff914 said:

Sorry not so soon. Right as far as I can see I have stopped back up of photos an emails from the main phone and the second phone. Second phone for phone calls as main phone wont take or make calls. Deleted all the emails from Google. So far deleted 4GB of photos. Trouble is you have to do them one at a time. Get a message today telling me the storage is full as I met the 15GB limit. WTF!!!!!!!! As fast as I am deleting them Google is backing them up even though back up is off. Triple check again I suppose.

Did you not try what I suggested and recover storage? I know for a fact that it is very effective.

10 minutes ago, Upnotover said:

Did you not try what I suggested and recover storage? I know for a fact that it is very effective.

You mean this "I do the same but like you had accumulated almost 15GB of photos on Google by not turning off the automatic backup (which is very easy to turn off). By using the recover storage option I now have only 3.7GB of photos. And as I don't add any new ones it will not increase."

I haven't done, a bit side tracked on other things. I am trying to understand what is going on. I noticed looking at the Apps Gallery is only 678 MB. I find that very hard to believe. Photos is 3.85 GB. I therefore assume that each back up is cumulative and doesn't overwrite previous back ups. Photos is the Google App so assume it is that app being backed up. I am still trying to understand why have switched off the back ups that I could find, back ups are still taking place. Having cleared a load out is grew to 15 GB again. I have done a complete back up of pictures to the computer. Thinking of doing another clean back up then deleting the Gallery and Photo apps and re-installing.

I can't quite get my head round the recover function? Is the back up a single back up with previous back ups deleted or cumulative. If I recover does it recover the most recent or all of them. Does recovering empty the Google back up? Just trying to avoid making the situation worse.

I am also thinking of just ditching the gmail email account and migrating to an outlook account if Google are going to threaten to block sending and receiving emails. Of course that means changing every registration I have to Outlook

9 minutes ago, Geoff914 said:

I can't quite get my head round the recover function? Is the back up a single back up with previous back ups deleted or cumulative. If I recover does it recover the most recent or all of them. Does recovering empty the Google back up? Just trying to avoid making the situation worse.

It compresses the photo's stored on your google account. So they remain backed up but much smaller. I'm not sure where you are seeing the 3.85GB? You need to go to Google Photos on a PC browser to see what it is storing, and from there can choose to recover storage is desired.

11 hours ago, Geoff914 said:

Sorry not so soon. Right as far as I can see I have stopped back up of photos an emails from the main phone and the second phone. Second phone for phone calls as main phone wont take or make calls. Deleted all the emails from Google. So far deleted 4GB of photos. Trouble is you have to do them one at a time. Get a message today telling me the storage is full as I met the 15GB limit. WTF!!!!!!!! As fast as I am deleting them Google is backing them up even though back up is off. Triple check again I suppose.

I found this on tik tok

I messed up with the recording, here's part 2

On 6/24/2026 at 4:46 PM, Ricohoc said:

My advice would be -- as much as possible -- get the hell away from Google. I made that transition about 10 years ago.

On 6/24/2026 at 4:46 PM, Ricohoc said:

My advice would be -- as much as possible -- get the hell away from Google. I made that transition about 10 years ago.

Who, you with now?

I asked Google Gemini "if my google free storage is full, how do I delete all my backed up photos and videos and prevent google from further backups?". I have not looked further but I hope this helps. I also had the free storage full message a few months ago and managed to easily delete everything except my gmail files. Currently sitting on 3% of 15GB used and been like that ever since I turned off backups.

---

• Gemini Response follows

To clear your Google storage and stop it from filling up again, you need to perform two distinct steps: turn off the automatic backup feature on your mobile device, and then wipe the existing cloud archive via a web browser so you don't accidentally delete the local files off your physical phone.

Step 1: Prevent Google from Further Backups

You must do this on your phone or tablet before you start deleting anything, otherwise your phone will just instantly re-upload files or mirror your deletions.

1. Open the Google Photos app on your phone.

2. Tap your Profile icon (your face or initial) in the top-right corner.

3. Tap Photos settings (or Google Photos settings), then select Backup.

4. Toggle the switch for Backup to OFF.

Step 2: Delete the Cloud Archive (Without Wiping Your Phone)

If you delete photos using the mobile app, it will delete them from both the cloud and your phone's internal storage. To safely wipe only the Google Cloud copies, use a computer web browser:

1. Open a web browser on your computer and go to photos.google.com.

2. Log in with your Google account.

3. To delete files en masse:

   • Click the checkmark on the very first photo at the top to select it.

   • Scroll down quite a bit (let the page load more images).

   • Hold down the Shift key on your keyboard and click a photo further down. This highlights every single image in between.

4. Click the Trash Can icon in the top right corner and confirm Move to trash.

5. Repeat this batch-selection until your main feed is clear.

Step 3: Permanently Reclaim Your Storage Space

Google keeps deleted items in a temporary trash bin for 60 days, meaning your storage will still show as "Full" until you empty it manually.

1. On the left-hand sidebar of the webpage, click on Trash.

2. Click the Empty trash button in the top right corner.

3. Confirm the permanent deletion.

Within a few minutes to an hour, your Google Drive account storage meter will drop back down to zero, and your phone will no longer attempt to upload new media.

Edited June 27Jun 27 by Dexxter

2 hours ago, Scouse123 said:

Who, you with now?

Lifetime cloud with pcloud.

Turned off everything Google on my phone and tablets.

Email is with Proton; and I have a trash email with Yandex.

Browser is with Brave and Vivaldi.

Edited June 27Jun 27 by Ricohoc

I upgraded my Google Drive to 2GB for next to nothing, $10 I think.

22 minutes ago, wil iam not said:

I upgraded my Google Drive to 2GB for next to nothing, $10 I think.

2GB? But you already get 15GB for free.

6 minutes ago, Upnotover said:

2GB? But you already get 15GB for free.

Sorry, my typo. 200GB

On 6/24/2026 at 4:53 PM, johng said:

personally try my damnedest not to save stuff to Google's servers

as they keep it all forever, use it for marketing, AI training and government surveillance.

This statement is refuted in Google's terms of service for data stored on their Drive service. Some of the above statement is true for your search history.

26 minutes ago, gamb00ler said:

This statement is refuted in Google's terms of service for data stored on their Drive service. Some of the above statement is true for your search history.

Yes but unfortunately Google have been caught doing stuff they weren't supposed to, or admitted to, many times over the years.

Anyone else remember back in 2010 the mapping of individual SSID's during their Street View project -

https://www.dailymail.com/sciencetech/article-1282500/Google-Street-View-secretly-took-wi-fi-details--use-data-target-ads-mobile-phones.html