Latest news with #summerVacation
CNET
3 days ago
- General
- CNET
Running Out of Space? Expert Hacks to Boost Your Google Drive Storage
It's warming up and schools are out for summer so you might be planning to go on vacation soon. That means you may take a bunch of pictures and videos of your sun-soaked days and other adventures. But if you use Google Drive for digital storage, your photos, videos and other random documents can eat up the 15GB of free storage faster than you can say "summer vacation." If you run out of storage, you'll see a message asking you to upgrade to a Google One plan, but that doesn't mean you have to buy digital storage. If you're willing to create another Google account, you can transfer all your old email and files for free. But if that sounds like a hassle, here are some other tricks to easily clear space in your digital filing cabinet. We recommend trying these tips on your laptop rather than a phone, as you'll have an easier time sorting through and managing files. We'll walk you through both processes if you have access only to a mobile device. 1. Easily find and delete large files If you want to keep the majority of your items in Google Drive and Gmail, you can free up space by sorting each service by file size and deleting only one or two large files instead of a few dozen smaller items. Deleting one or two videos that take up multiple megabytes of space is easier than sorting through hundreds of old documents of similar file size to decide which can be deleted. Delete files by size in Google Drive Here's how to delete files by size on your desktop. 1. Log into your Google Drive account. 2. Click Storage in the menu on the left side of the screen. 3. The Storage page should list your files from largest to smallest, but if not, click Storage used on the right side of the screen. The files should now be ordered from largest to smallest. 4. Click on the large files you want to delete to select them. You can select multiple files by holding the Shift key on your keyboard. 5. After selecting the files for deletion, click either the trash bin that appears near the top of the screen or click and drag the large files to Trash on the left side of the screen. You're not finished when the items are in the Trash. From there, click Trash on the left side of the screen to go to the Trash menu. Then, click Empty Trash on the right side of the screen, and then click Empty forever. You can also delete files by size on your mobile device. Here's how. 1. Open your Google Drive app and log into your account. 2. Tap Files in the bottom-right corner of the screen. 3. Tap Name underneath My Drive near the top of the screen. 4. Tap Storage used. This will arrange your files from largest to smallest. You can select My Drive and then Storage used again to list your files by smallest to largest. 5. Tap the three dots (...) next to the item you want to delete. 6. Tap Remove then Move to trash. Google says in the app that Items in your Trash are deleted forever automatically after 30 days. If you want to speed things up and empty your trash now, here's how. 1. Tap the hamburger icon (three stacked lines) in the top-left corner of the screen next to Search in Drive. 2. Tap Trash. 3. Tap the three dots (...) in the top-right corner of the screen. 4. Tap Empty trash. Whether you need to make more space or just want to keep your Gmail tidy, it's easy to make room for storage in the service. James Martin/CNET Delete files by size in Gmail You can also delete your files by size in Gmail. Here's how on desktop. 1. Log into your Gmail account. 2. Type has:attachment larger:10MB into the search bar and hit Search. This will show you all emails that have attachments larger than 10MB, from largest to smallest. You can use this format to filter by other size files, not just 10MB files. 3. Check the boxes to the left of each email you want to delete, then click the Trash icon across the top of your screen. It should be under Conversations. 4. Click Trash on the left side of the screento go to the Trash menu. If you don't see Trash, click More and Trash should be in the expanded menu. 5. Click Empty trash now at the top of the screen. You can delete files in the Gmail app similarly too. Here's how. 1. Open your Gmail app and log in to your account. 2. Type has:attachment larger:10MB into the search bar and hit Search. This will show you all emails that have attachments larger than 10MB, from largest to smallest. You can use this format to filter by other size files, not just 10MB files. 3. Tap into the email you want to delete. 4. Tap the trash bin icon across the top of your screen. 5. Tap < in the top-left corner of your screen. 6. Tap the hamburger icon in the top-left corner of the screen next to Search in mail. 7. Tap Trash. 8. Tap Empty trash now. Note that once a file goes to Trash, it'll automatically delete after 30 days. 2. Empty your spam folder It's easy to forget about emptying your spam folder, and it can take up unnecessary data in your Gmail account. Emptying your spam folder — and your social or promotions folders — is another way to make space. Here's how to empty your Spam folder on your desktop. 1. Log into your Gmail account. 2. Once you're logged in, click Spam on the left side of the screen. If you don't see Spam, click More and Spam should be in the expanded menu. 3. In your Spam folder, click Delete all spam messages now. 4. Click OK in the pop-up. Here's how to empty your Spam folder in the mobile app. 1. Open the Gmail app and log into your account. 2. Tap the hamburger icon in the top-left corner of the screen next to Search in mail. 3. Tap Spam. 4. Tap Delete all spam messages now or Empty spam now. Don't let spam bog down your Gmail. Getty Images 3. Delete old or duplicate photos in Google Photos Google also includes Google Photos in the 15GB of free storage it gives its users. Photos and videos can take up more space than text-based files, especially higher-quality ones, so it's a good idea to go through and delete old and duplicate photos and videos to make room. There's no option to arrange your photos and videos from largest to smallest like in Google Drive and Gmail, so you'll have to go through and delete items manually. You can check how much space a file is taking up by selecting it and clicking the "i" for information from the top menu. Here's how to delete photos and videos from Google Photos on your desktop. 1. Open and log into Google Photos. 2. Scroll your mouse over photos and videos you want to delete and click the gray checkmark icon in the top-left corner of the photo or video. Do this to as many photos and videos as you want. 3. Click the trash icon in the top-right corner of the screen. 4. Click Move to trash. 5. Click Trash on the left side of the screen. 6. Click Empty trash near the top-right corner of your screen. 7. Click Empty trash again, and you're set. Here's how to delete photos and videos from the Google Photos mobile app. A note for Apple users: If your Gmail is linked to your iCloud account, the two digital storage spaces may also be linked. This means that when enabling the Backup & Sync feature on Google Photos, all your local photos on your iPhone will be displayed on Google Photos. If you delete a photo on Google Photos, then the local photo on your iPhone will also be removed. When the local photo is removed, it won't show up on iCloud. You'll be able to tell if this is you when you try to delete an image on Google Photos; a pop-up window will let you know you're about to delete from both places. 1. Open and log into Google Photos. 2. Tap the photo or video you want to delete. 3. Tap the trash can icon in the bottom-right corner of the screen. 4. Tap Delete. 5. Tap Library in the bottom-right corner of the screen. 6. Tap Trash. 7. Tap the three dots (...) in the top-right corner of the screen. 8. Tap Empty trash. 9. Tap Delete. If you don't click or tap Empty trash on either desktop or mobile, the photos and videos you've deleted will automatically be deleted after 60 days. Bonus tip: You can reduce the file size of some photos and videos in Google Photos. Doing so will allow you to regain some space, but it will reduce the quality of your media. You can learn more about this from Google Support here. Photos and videos in Google Photos can take up a lot of storage. Sarah Tew/CNET 4. When all else fails, download your files to your desktop If your storage is still almost full and you can't part with any more items from your Google Drive, Gmail or Google Photos, you can download your items and store them directly on your computer. Here's how to download all your Google files for storage on another hard drive. 1. Open and log into your Google Drive or Google Photos account on your desktop. 2. Select the files or photos you want to download. 3. Click the three stacked dots in the upper-right corner of your screen. 4. Click Download. Note that Gmail will download messages as a .eml file. 5. Once the items are downloaded and moved onto your hard drive, feel free to delete them from your account and empty your trash bins. You can download emails from Gmail in much the same way, but you have to download your emails one at a time. While this makes downloading your emails more tedious, it's still possible. Here's how to download your emails from Gmail. 1. Open and log into your Gmail account on your desktop. 2. Click on the email you want to download. 3. Click the three stacked dots in the upper-right corner of your screen. 4. Click Download. Your emails will download as a .eml file. 5. Once your emails are downloaded and moved onto your hard drive, feel free to delete them from your account and empty your trash bins. For more on Google, here's everything the company announced at its I/O 2025 presentation. You can also check out CNET's impressions of Google's Android XR glasses.
CBS News
20-05-2025
- CBS News
Many Americans plan to skip summer vacations due to financial restrictions, UMBC polls finds
About 47% of Americans will skip a summer vacation this year due to financial restrictions, according to a poll from UMBC. UMBC surveyed 1,123 adults in America between May 1 and May 5 to determine how summer vacation trends have changed for 2025. About half of Americans will skip summer vacation in 2025 According to the poll, a majority of Americans plan to forgo a summer vacation in 2025 for various reasons. While 47% of respondents said they cannot afford a vacation, about 21% said their family and personal obligations do not allow them the time to take a vacation this summer. The insight comes as many people in Maryland and across the nation have been impacted by federal funding and workforce cuts facilitated by the Trump administration. The federal cuts are part of the administration's effort to decrease spending and make the government more efficient. Another 20% of survey respondents said they would rather take a vacation during another season, and 16% said they can't get enough time off work to take a vacation. Americans share their opinions on summer vacations According to the poll, about 55% of Americans said they plan to spend at least two nights on vacation this summer. The survey found that about 54% of Democrats plan to take a vacation, compared to 61% of Republicans and 45% of Independents. The survey also found that more than half of their respondents prefer to try different vacation destinations each year, while only 16% like returning to the same destination. Trust in major airlines remains strong amid FAA issues The survey revealed that a majority of Americans still feel safe flying with major airlines, despite some hiccups over the past year, including plane crashes and delays due to Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) or airline staffing issues. In January, an American Airlines flight crashed in Washington, D.C., killing 67 people. Afterward, WJZ found that some passengers at BWI Airport felt uneasy about flying. "Well, I feel very safe, but no doubt, when you're taking off or you're landing, you're going to think a little bit more about it than you would normally," Anne Arundel County resident Adam Pohl said. Since then, there have been several more reported crashes, like a medical jet crash in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, that killed seven people. There have also been some near misses, like an almost collision between a Delta plane and a military jet near Reagan National Airport in March. Despite this, UMBC's poll found that 57% of respondents felt safe flying commercial. The survey also found that 80% of people felt safe driving a personal vehicle, and 57% felt safe riding on a U.S. passenger train.
Khaleej Times
20-05-2025
- Khaleej Times
UAE: No Schengen visa appointments until August; residents told to rethink summer plans
Planning to travel to Europe to enjoy the cooler climes this summer vacation? If you haven't applied for a Schengen visa yet, you should head back to the drawing board as visa appointments are currently unavailable for the foreseeable future. Travel agents said that the appointments for the 29 countries are currently unavailable, and the next available slots will only show up from mid-August onwards. According to them, most appointments are fully booked until at least the second week of August. Even if travellers manage to secure an appointment slot, getting the actual visa can take up to two weeks to a month, making it nearly impossible to plan a Schengen vacation during the school break. "There are no appointments for any country at the moment,' said Subair Thekepurathvalappil, senior manager at Wisefox Tourism. 'Only a few limited slots are available for Greece in the third week of July, but even those are hard to get. With the current delays, the summer holidays will be over by the time people get their visas.' The demand for Schengen visas is extremely high this year. Italy and France are the top choices for many UAE travellers, but the rush is making it difficult to get appointments on time. 'It's not just Schengen. Even the UK visa is taking about two months now,' said Pavan Poojari, travel consultant at Luxury Travels. 'A lot of people want to travel, but they have no choice but to look for other options.' Tour operators say that due to these delays, they encourage residents to consider alternative travel destinations that are easier to access and still offer memorable experiences. 'Kenya is one of the best options right now. The Great Migration begins in July and continues into August. It's one of the most stunning wildlife events in the world. People can go on safaris and see nature at its best,' said Subair. South Africa and Zanzibar are also becoming popular alternatives. 'Many UAE residents choose these places for their scenic beauty, unique culture, and easier visa process,' added Subair. In addition to African destinations, several Asian countries attract travellers with their beaches, nature, and vibrant cities. 'Thailand, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, and Japan are among the top picks,' said Pavan. 'These destinations are great during the monsoon and are usually cheaper compared to Europe. They offer a different vibe, but still give families a fun vacation.' For those still hoping for a European feel, Turkey remains a strong option. 'You can get a Turkish visa in about a month, which is much better compared to Schengen or UK wait times,' said Pavan. Some Scandinavian countries still have Schengen visa appointments available, but Subair said that they are not ideal for everyone. "These countries fall in the northern part of Europe. It becomes expensive and time-consuming to travel to the more popular southern parts like Italy or Spain from there, which is why fewer people choose this option.' While travel agents expect more visa slots to open up in the coming months, they are advising residents to be flexible with their plans and consider new, less-travelled destinations. 'We hope that embassies can take note of the high travel demand and expect more slots to become available soon, as the number of people wanting to travel to Schengen countries is extremely high,' said Subair.
