How can I free up Google Photos storage usage from Google Drive Google Photos (previously Google+) automatically backs up your photos from your phone to your Google+ / Google Photos account.

They give you the option to backup a compressed version which is unlimited and free, or you can backup at full original quality but it uses up your Google Drive storage quota.

I have always believed I have had this setting turned off, but I noticed I am using 8GB of my Drive quota due to Google Photos. Which makes me think it had been backing up the full versions for some time previously - Right now the option is set to the free compressed version. 

(I am assuming the 8GB is due to the original uncompressed option being turned on at some point? Unless theres another thing that would use up this space?)

Is there a way to identify and remove all of the high resolution photos from my Drive / the Photos that are using my Drive storage, but still keeping scaled / free version of the photo.



I have just noticed you can choose an option to show a Google Photos folder in your drive of your Google Photos. I have just done this hoping I could somehow filter by size or quota used but this doesn't seem possible.

I just want to try and identify what is using the 8GB
I have just found the real correct way to combat this problem. There is no actual way you can easily see which photos are "original" quality vs "high".

Google provide a slightly hidden feature to convert all your "original" photos to "high".

On Google Photo Settings Page @ https://photos.google.com/settings
Click Recover Storage button to Compress Original Size Pictures!