Digital Declutter

Benefits of Digital Decluttering 

• Improved Productivity: A clutter-free digital environment helps you find files and information quickly, reducing time wasted searching for documents or emails.
• Enhanced Security: Regularly cleaning out old and unnecessary files can reduce the risk of data breaches and improve your system’s security. Deleting outdated software and files that you no longer use minimises vulnerabilities.
• Better Performance: Keeping your devices free from unnecessary files and applications can enhance performance, resulting in faster load times and more efficient operation.
• Maximised Storage: Regularly removing unneeded files and applications frees up valuable storage space, ensuring you have enough room for important data and new projects.
• Sustainability: Digital decluttering can also contribute to sustainability efforts. Minimising the number of files and data being stored reduces energy consumption, both locally and in cloud storage solutions.
• Saving Money:  The University incurs costs for storing every document. By deleting redundant, outdated, or trivial (ROT) files, you can directly contribute to the University's cost-cutting efforts.

Staff File Storage

Please review the Staff Storage article for information on file storage at the University.

Please note: M365 storage is currently under review by the Modern Work Programme.

Information Governance Guidance on Training

Information governance is a framework of policies, procedures, and controls to manage information in a joined-up way. It involves knowing:

• what information is held
• where it is held
• who is responsible for it
• how long to keep it

More information can be found on the Information Governance page.  The Information Governance team also run webinars, details of which can be located on the Information Matters page.

Digital Skills Training

• Details of our current training schedule can be found on the Staff IT Training page.
• If you need help with your decluttering, you can arrange a 20-minute 1:1 with a trainer by emailing digitalskills@port.ac.uk

Deleting Files from the N:Drive

The N:Drive is a network storage area that is created when your staff account is initiated. Not all staff will use their N: Drive, for more information please see the Staff Storage Article

Using the sort function will enable you to quickly find files that are taking up a lot storage.

1. If you are working off site turn on the VPN
2. Open File Explorer on your Task Bar
3. Double click on your N Drive in the Navigation pane to display the contents
4. Select the View Tab 
5. Use the Sort by button to select Size, this will display the files that take up most storage.
6. Select the files you no longer need, see instructions below for an easy way to do this.
7. Right click on the selected files and choose Delete

Selecting multiple files

1. Select the View toolbar
2. Turn on Show Item Checkboxes
3. Select all the files you would like to delete 
4. Right click and select delete

Deleting Files from the K: Drive

The K: Drive is university-owned network storage area that is available for only named departments and sections; you should not be able to see any other departments/sections on the K Drive. Please be aware that not all departments will use their K: Drive, some will use shared areas on Google Drive,  for more information please see the Staff Storage Article

Note: Please be cautious when deleting files or folders from the K: Drive. Ensure you have permission from the folder or files owner before proceeding and check that no one else in the team will need access to these files. 

Using the sort function will enable you to quickly find files that are taking up a lot storage.

1. If you are working off-site turn on the VPN
2. Open File Explorer on your Task Bar
3. Double-click on your K Drive in the Navigation pane to display the contents
4. Select the View Tab 
5. Use the Sort by button to select Size; this will display the files that take up most storage.
6. Select the files you no longer need; see the instructions below for an easy way to do this.
7. Right-click on the selected files and choose Delete

Selecting multiple files

1. Select the View toolbar
2. Turn on Show Item Checkboxes
3. Select all the files you would like to delete 
4. Right-click and select delete

Google Chrome Bookmarks

The easiest way to declutter your bookmarks is to open Bookmark Manager

1. Open Google Chrome and check that you are signed in
2. Click on the three dots (top right of the screen) a drop down menu will display
3. Select Bookmarks and Lists followed by Bookmark manager
4. The pane on the left will display all the folders you have created, if you click on a folder the bookmarks will be displayed
5. To delete a bookmark right click on the bookmark and select Delete
6. To delete a folder right click on the folder and select Delete
7. To move a bookmark to a different folder, click and drag the bookmark to the folder
8. To create a new folder click on the three dots (top right next to the search bar) and select Add new folder

Deleting multiple emails at the same time

1. Click on the checkboxes next to the emails you want to delete

2. Select the Bin icon to move the selected emails to the Bin

3. Navigate to the Bin folder, then click on Empty Bin to permanently delete the emails

Viewing more emails on one page

1. The default view is to display 50 emails on each page you can change this to 100 in settings 
2. Click on Settings > See all settings 
3. In the General Tab select Maximum page size to 100

Selecting and deleting all the emails on one page

1. Using the dropdown button next to Select Icon and select ALL 
2. Select the Bin Icon 
3. Empty your Bin

Note: Clicking the bin icon does not delete emails, they are placed in your bin and will be deleted after 30 days. To delete immediately, follow the instructions in the Emptying your bin section.

Locating old emails

1. Open Google Mail
2. In the search bar at the top, type the following, modifying the dates as required (note how the dates are formatted) after:2018/3/16 before:2020/3/17 
3. This will display emails between these dates
4. Delete the emails you no longer require

Locating and deleting emails with large attachments 

This search allows you to easily locate emails with large attachments

1. Open Google mail
2. Click on the Show search options located at the end of the search mail field
3. Enter the following conditions Size: select greater than, tab to move to the next field, type in a value, tab to move to the next field and select MB. 
4. Select the Has attachment checkbox
5. Click Search to find emails that match your criteria

Searching for emails

You can use words or symbols called search operators to filter your Gmail search results.

1. In the search box type in the search operator

This Google Support article provides a comprehensive list,  the main ones are listed below:

Empty the files in your Google Mail Bin

The bin will automatically empty after 30 days but to empty immediately and recover all the space follow these instructions

1. Open Google Mail
2. Select the Bin icon from the folder pane (left of the screen). If you cannot see the Bin folder click on the More arrow which is located after the Drafts folder
3. The emails that are in bin will be displayed, these will be automatically deleted after 30 days 
4. If you would like to delete all the files click on Empty Bin now
5. To delete an individual email hover over the email, right click and select Delete Forever

Locating Files on your Google Drive that taking up the most storage

Instructions

1. Open Google Drive

2. In the left-hand menu panel, click on Storage which is located at the bottom. Click here to View Image

3. Your files will be displayed in size order with the largest files listed first
4. Review the files and delete any that you no longer require by right clicking and selecting Remove.

Deleting emails in your Google Drive Bin

The bin will automatically empty after 30 days but to empty immediately and recover all the space follow these instructions

1. Open Google Drive in a browser 
2. In the folder pane (left of the screen under the +New button) select the Bin icon 
3. The files that are in bin will be displayed, these will be automatically deleted after 30 days 
4. If you would like to delete all the files click on Empty Bin
5. To delete an individual file click on the ... next to the file and select Delete Forever

Deleting a Shared Drive 

To Delete a Shared Drive you need to have Manager Permissions for that Drive.  This is given by default to the person who created the Shared Drive.

1. Open Google Drive
2. Navigate to Shared Folders and click to display the folders
3. Double click on the Shared Folder to view the contents
4. Move any files you need to keep to a different location
5. Delete the remaining files and folders
6. Remove all people that have access to the shared drive.  click on the drop down arrow by the name of the folder (top of the screen)  and select Manage Members
7. Select Remove Access from the dropdown menu for each person, do not remove yourself 
8. To delete the Shared Drive click on the drop down arrow by the name of the folder (top of the screen) and select Delete Shared Drive

Requesting a Shared Drive

You will need to complete a Request Shared Google Drive form and the Service Desk will create it for you, as you will no longer be able to do this yourself from within Google Drive. This will allow us to help identify the correct solution for your data storage needs and ensure that only essential Shared Drives are created, helping us manage our storage more effectively.

Google Shared with me

1. Open Google Drive in a Browser
2. Navigate to the Shared with Me Folder and click to display the contents
3. Select the Files and Folders you would like to remove
4. Right click and select the Remove option.  This will remove the selected files or folders for your Shared with Me Folder, this will not delete the file or folder for others.

Removing Google Forms

Instructions

1. Open Google Drive
2. On the Navigation Panel on the left-hand side select Storage, it's towards the bottom
3. From the Type Menu at the top select Forms view image
4. The Forms that you own will be displayed
5. Delete the Forms that you no longer require by right clicking on them and selecting Move to Bin

Google Photos

On a personal device

1. Open a new browser tab and login to your University account
2. Click the Avatar (First letter of your first name) in the top right corner of any Google page
3. Click Manage your Google account
4. Click Data and Privacy
5. Scroll down to 'Data from apps and services that you use'
6. Click Google Photos icon

Under Google Photos, you will see the number of photos you have in Google Photos

1. Click that number
2. Click Albums on the left-hand menu
3. Create a new album
4. Name the album and click add photos
5. Add the photos as required
6. Click Done
7. Click the 3 dots (top-right)
8. Select download 
9. All images in the album will be downloaded as a zip file

Note: Staff should not save personal photos on their personal drive

Removing Google Sites

1. Open Google Drive
2. On the Navigation Panel on the left-hand side, locate Storage, it's towards the bottom 
3. From the Type Menu at the top, select Sites View Image
4. The Sites that you own are displayed
5. Delete the files that you no longer require by right clicking on them and selecting Move to Bin