Google’s Gmail May Be Down, But You Don’t Have To Be: Here’s How To Get 2 GB Of Free Google Drive Storage

In celebration of Safer Internet Day on February 9, Google Drive wants to make you an offer you can’t refuse. If you’re willing to perform a super simple task, you could find yourself looking at an extra 2 gigabytes of (free!) storage in Google’s famous cloud, Google Drive.

The tech company has always been very concerned about security, and now they’re offering a free storage bonus to anyone who is willing to review their security info and verify their information. This consists of personal information like a phone number and alternate email address you can be reached at if you ever need to reset your Drive password, as well as changing various security settings related to your account.

Interested? If you want to review your Drive security settings in honor of Safer Internet Day, you can hop on over to their site. You can also check settings on any connected devices since Google links your bookmarks and personal information across accounts if you use a mobile device that’s running Google’s Chrome browser. Android Authority reported that you will need to complete the whole Safer Internet Day checkup to get your free Drive space, but this shouldn’t take more than a few minutes.

Another nice twist to the Safer Internet Day security checkup is that you can remove permissions you’ve already granted to apps and extensions in Chrome. If you’re done using an app or decide that it’s a bit too invasive, you only need to click “remove” and you’ll have taken back the previously-given permissions.

Presumably, the deal will only be offered tomorrow, on the actual Safer Internet Day. Once you reach the checkup page that says you’re “all set,” look for a note at the bottom mentioning the promo and you should be good to go. Enjoy your new Drive storage!

The Safer Internet Day security checkup can also be used to make sure your passwords are up to snuff, and can rate the strength of them as well. Once you’ve completed the checkup and gotten the note about your free storage, feel free to hop on over to your Drive and check. If the storage was added successfully, you will see at the bottom left of the Drive screen that you have a total of 17 GB rather than 15 for Drive’s storage. A quick hover over the section where your storage is displayed will show you how much storage G-Mail, Drive, and Photos each take up.

Just to illuminate how great of a deal this promo is, 100 extra gigs of Drive storage will normally run you $1.99 monthly, while a Terabyte will set you back $9.99 each month. 2 extra GB of space may not sound like a great amount, but it’s enough to keep you from potentially having to sift through hundreds of Gmail messages or thousands of photos to find what’s up for deletion. In fact, several hundred MP3’s can also fit in this space depending on their length and data size.

Android Police noted that Google offered the same promo for Safer Internet Day last year, so hopefully this is a trend they will keep up with in the future. The only catch is that the Drive promo doesn’t apply to Google Apps For Work and Google Apps For Education users, as Google noted on its blog during last year’s Safer Internet Day.

If the Safer Internet Day promo isn’t enough to attract you, hopefully keeping safe online will. It’s important for Google to have your information so they can contact you if your account seems to be compromised, as well as helping you reset your password if it’s forgotten or appears to have been discovered.