Google sends automatic alerts to users when they are close to reaching or have reached the storage limit for their My Drive and Shared drives.
Google Apps that will Display Alerts
When your account's storage is between 80% and 100% capacity, you'll receive notifications in Drive, Gmail, and the Drive for Desktop app.
When you view Storage in Google Drive (by clicking Storage in the left sidebar menu), you will see storage low (at 80% capacity) or storage full (at 100% capacity) notifications indicating how much of your individual storage space has been used.
80% Capacity Yellow Banner Notification
Faculty/Staff account:
Student account:
100% Capacity Red Banner Notification
Faculty/Staff account:
Student account:
To prevent interruptions, free up space or submit a support ticket.
Google Drive Red Sidebar Notifications
When you reach your storage limit, users accessing your shared files and folders will see a notification indicating that the user who owns the shared content has met their storage capacity.
Faculty/Staff account:
Student account:
When a shared drive’s storage is between 80% and 100% full, you will receive the following banner notifications at the top of the Drive page.
Managers and Content Managers View
Shared Drive Storage Low Yellow Banner Notification
Shared Drive Storage Full Red Banner Notification
Contributors, Commenters, and Viewers View
90% Capacity Red Banner Notification
100% Capacity Red Banner Notification
Other users:
Outside of your Shared Drives, any collaborators you’ve shared individual files and folders with will receive an error message when attempting to move those items.
All members and collaborators can still view, comment on, and edit existing files and folders within the Shared Drive (depending on their permission level). However, some actions are restricted when the shared Drive is full. Users will not be able to:
Create New Files
When a Shared Drive is full, creating new files, (Docs, Sheets, Slides, Forms, etc.) within the Shared Drive will be temporarily disabled. Users will receive this error message in the Google file attempting to be created.
Upload Files or Folders
Attempting to upload new files or folders will be temporarily disabled in full Shared drives and users will receive this error message pop-up after attempting to upload new files or folders.
Copy and Paste a File or Folder
Attempting to copy or paste a file or files within a Shared Drive will be temporarily disabled and users will receive this error message after attempting to copy/paste.
Google Storage 95% Full Notification Banner
80% Capacity Desktop Notification
The Google Drive for Desktop App will display the following notifications when storage is 80% and 100% full or if you attempt to upload a file or folder that will exceed your storage limit capacity.
100% Capacity Desktop Notification
The storage notifications will disappear once your account/shared drive usage falls below 80% of your limit.
Here are some ways to free up space.