A few months ago I enabled the "Full Size" upload option on my Google+ sync for photos. I then realized that I would soon run out of storage and I deselected the option, allowing a resizing to 2048px, which gives me "unlimited" storage (not really unlimited, but you get the point), as only photos over 2048 x 2048 pixels and videos longer than 15 minutes count towards your storage limit. (doc. source)
I was at a healthy 7GB of storage, then today Google+ went completely crazy and said I was using 15.8GB of storage, and had to buy the 100GB option to be able to even send and receive emails.
I looked at the documentation online (BTW, it's totally broken and full of links that end up either nowhere or in the wrong place) and nowhere does it say how I can find the large files in my Google+ photo stream so that I can delete them.
I downloaded Picasa hoping that I could find those files from Google+, sort them by size, and delete from the Desktop app, but had no luck.
I don't want to keep paying for the 100GB (I really don't need them), and I'd like to find a way to identify the big files on Google+ so I can delete them and get back to the 7GB range.
Ideas?
Best Answer
This has now become straightforward:
Go to: https://photos.google.com/u/0/settings
Make sure "high quality" is checked (i.e., the compressed format which will deal with all future uploads)
Click on the "Recover Storage" button then click "compress" (probably last thing before you go to bed)
When I did that, the next day my storage was down to tiny levels (presumably because all the photos in "original size" had been compressed). Job Done!