Delete large attachments from Gmail

If you use Gmail regularly the 6+GB space Google offers may not be enough and you may be running out of space, which will make your account stop working. To avoid this problem you may want to free up some space with these tips.

If you're still struggling to make enough space, you can use this ultimate and simple solution:

1. Set-up you Gmail as an IMAP account in your Mail.app using these instructions.
2. Allow it a lot of time to download all your emails. Be careful not to download too much data at any 24 hour interval, as Google has a tendency to block the accounts with excessive traffic. Do it over a few days.



3. Then select the All Mail folder under your account.
4. Switch on the Size column in the list of your mails by CTRL-clicking the column titles.
5. Sort the messages by Size. Now you can see individual messages that have the largest attachments within your account.
6. Select and delete those emails that are unneeded. Check for those duplicates where you forwarded a large attachment and therefore it occupies your mailbox twice in your inbox and sent folders

Besides freeing up space on your Gmail account, by setting up an IMAP account you've also set-up a backup of your Gmail in case something happens to your internet connection or your Gmail account.