Why delete everything from Google Drive?

Sometimes, you might want to know how to delete everything in your Google Drive, and we listed some reasons to delete all files in Google Drive due to the following situations:

• Your Google Drive storage full.

• Encounter a Google Drive sync issue and want to start the sync from scratch, so delete everything in Google Drive.

• Don’t want to use Google Drive account anymore and switch to another cloud storage.

• There are no files you want to keep in Google Drive.

• ...

No matter what reasons make you delete files from Google Drive, it’s not important. And how to delete everything from Google Drive storage matters.

How to remove everything from Google Drive at once on computer?

How to delete everything on your Google Drive? Don't worry, here is an easy way to how to delete everything in Google Drive and the detailed steps are listed below:

1. Sign in to your Google Drive account in the browser and go to My Drive in Google Drive. 

2. Click the blank space and hold your mouse to cover all your Google Drive files and folders (or press the Ctrl + A or Shift + A key combination).

2. Now everything from your Google Drive will be selected, and hit the Delete icon on the top right corner.

It will delete everything from Google Drive at once, just try it.

Permenantly Delete all Google Drive files at once

After deleting everything from Google Drive, all your files will be saved in Trash Bin. If you want to delete them permanently, just try the following steps:

1. Click Trash in your Google Drive after logging in.

2. Press the Empty trash button on the top right corner, then hit Delete forever.

Now, all your Google Drive files will be deleted eternally. And please remind that you cannot restore your Google drive that was permanently deleted.

Besides, if you don’t want to use Google Drive anymore and delete all items in Google Drive, you could delete everything on your Google Drive and the Google Drive account as well to accomplish your goal.

2 Tips for Google Drive delete multiple files or folders on computer

Sometimes, you just want to delete multiple files in Google Drive not all files, here are some tips for you.

Tip 1. Manually select to delete multiple files from Google Drive

If you would like to delete things from Google Drive simply, the below steps will help you out:

1. log in to your Google Drive account, then press the Ctrl key and click the files you want to remove from Google Drive.

2. Right-click the selected files and choose Remove.

You will remove multiple items in Google Drive. Or you could use the Shift key in step 1 and select the files to delete.

Tip 2. Try Google Drive Search to Delete specified file types

Here we will show you how to delete all Google Drive folders and delete all documents in Google Drive respectively. And you could also delete other file types accordingly.

Delete all documents in Google Drive

1. Log into your Google Drive account, then click the Google Drive Search box and select Documents from the dropdown menu.

2. It will show you all documents in Google Drive, and select them all, and right-click them, choose Remove.

3. Then Google Drive will delete all documents.

Delete all Google Drive folders

To clear all your Google Drive folders, you could follow here:

1. Please go to your Google Drive webpage after logging in.

2. Click Google Drive Search box and choose More search tools. 

3. Select Folders in the Type section, and for other settings, you could configure as you want, and click Search.

4. All your Google Drive folders will be listed, select them all, and right-click to choose Remove.

Now, all your Google Drive folders have been deleted with a success.

Can't delete Google Drive files or folders?

However, there is a chance that you cannot delete some Google Drive files or folders, and here will show you the reasons and the solutions.

Reasons to you cannot delete some Google Drive files or folders:

• Files are shared.

• Files are owned by others.

• Protected file or folder.

Solutions to cannot delete Google Drive files or folders:

• Stop sharing Google Drive files or folders with others.

• Take Google Drive files or folder ownership to others.

Backup Google Drive in Advance Before Deleting Everything

Please ensure back up all your critical data before completely deleting everything from Google Drive to prevent your data from losing. If you haven't backed up the important data, it’s highly recommended to try the free cloud backup service - CBackup.

CBackup is capable of backing up a cloud to another cloud, syncing files from one cloud to another easily without downloading and re-uploading. Therefore, you could use it to back up Google Drive to another cloud, like Dropbox, OneDrive, etc.

Here is how to backup Google Drive to OneDrive for example via CBackup before delete everything from Google Drive:

Add Google Drive and OneDrive to CBackup

1. Please download and install the CBackup desktop app, then create a free CBackup account and sign in.

2. Click Storage, then choose Google Drive, click Authorize Now, then follow the on-screen guide to grant access to CBackup.

3. Then customize the Cloud name, Storage path and tick the Note option, then hit OK.

Repeat the process to add OneDrive to CBackup.

Backup Everything from Google Drive to OneDrive

After adding Google Drive and OneDrive to CBackup, just follow the steps below to backup Google Drive to OneDrive before deleting everything from Google Drive.

1. Click Backup on the left panel > Backup Public Cloud to Public Cloud in turn.

2. Select Google Drive as the source, and tick OneDrive as the destination.

3. Press the Start Backup button to backup Google Drive to OneDrive easily and quickly.

★Tips: Before starting a backup, there are some features you could configure:

Scheduler helps you to backup files automatically, you could set it to backup hourly, daily, weekly, monthly or one time only, saving time to prevent you from repeating the same process.

Enable Email Notification and you will get the email alert after the backup or restoration is completed.

File Filter helps you to backup the files you like or exclude the file types you don’t want to back up.

Besides, you could sync Google Drive to OneDrive, and Dropbox to transfer files directly within minutes. And you should know, that the synced data can be used directly and the backup file should be restored to use. Moreover, cloud to cloud backup provides the version history for you to see the changes every time it is backed up.

Increase Google Drive storage space for free

If you delete everything from Google Drive due to the Google Drive storage being full, CBackup also can help you out of this trouble. CBackup could merge multiple Google Drive accounts to get more google Drive free cloud storage space, and it’s easy to operate, here it is:

1. Add multiple Google Drive accounts to CBackup according to the above steps.

2. click Storage > + Add Combined Cloud.

3. Tick all Google Drive accounts, and click Next > Combine.

Now your Google drive storage space has been increased successfully, and you could backup files to the Google combined cloud with CBackup by clicking the Backup tab and then Backup PC to Combined Cloud.

Besides, CBackup has other features that you may want to try to fulfill your demands for data protection:

Backup files to Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, CBackup Cloud, and the combined cloud.

Provides the 5GB free cloud storage space of CBackup Cloud.

Restore files to the original location or new location as you want.

Sync files to mainstream clouds, like OneDrive, Dropbox, Google Drive, etc.

Further Reading: How to Delete Things from Google Drive on a Phone

How to Delete Things from Google Drive on iPhone

If you want to delete everything from your iPhone, you could try the following steps to make it:

1. log in to your Google Drive account on your iPhone.

2. Tap the Files tab on the bottom, find the file you want to delete, and then tap the three-dot icon.

3. Scroll down to select Remove, and a pop-up will show that "*** will be removed to the trash', hit the Remove button to confirm.

4. (Optional) If you want to delete files permanently, you could go to Trash after tapping the three-line icon in the top right corner. Find the files you want to delete permanently, tap the three-dots icon, and choose Delete Forever.

How to Delete Things from Google Drive on Android

If you want to delete everything from your Android phones, you could try the following steps:

1. log in to your Google Drive account on your Android Phone.

2. Tap the Files tab on the bottom, find the file(s) you want to delete, and then tap the three-dot icon.

3. Scroll down to select Remove, and a pop-up will show that "Move to Trash? *** will be deleted forever after 30 days", hit the Move to Trash button to confirm.

4. (Optional) If you want to delete files permanently, you could go to Trash after tapping the three-line icon in the top right corner. Find the files you want to delete permanently, tap the three-dots icon, and choose Delete Forever.

The Epilogue

How to delete everything from Google Drive at once? Just find the easiest way to clear all items in Google Drive and then follow the tips to delete specified file types efficiently. Please ensure you have backed up important Google Drive files to another cloud, and use CBackup to increase Google Drive storage space for free if your Google Drive storage full.