How I freed up 4GB of storage to avoid paying for Google One

Credit: Robert Triggs / Android Authority

I’ve been cruising in Google’s free storage tier for as long as I can remember, backing up my Photos, emails, and even WhatsApp messages without ever spending a penny. But over the past few months, I’ve been creeping up to the 15GB cap (17GB in my case, as an old-timer who jumped through Google’s security hoops), leading to a barrage of Google One notifications urging me to upgrade to a paid storage tier.

That’s never going to happen. The economics of starting out at just $1.99 a month for 100GB might not sound like much, but I know it won’t be many more years before I hit that limit, too. Then I’d be hooked: forking out $4.99 and then $9.99 every month, in perpetuity, for the luxury of having Google back up my odds and ends. …