The Storage Drain
Google Docs (specifically when used within the Google Chrome browser) features a powerful “Offline” mode. When enabled, this feature automatically downloads a cached copy of your most recently opened documents directly to your computer’s local hard drive. This allows you to continue typing even if your internet connection drops. However, if you frequently open massive documents containing hundreds of high-resolution images, this automatic background syncing can quickly fill up your local SSD with gigabytes of temporary cache files, causing your browser to slow down and consuming unnecessary local storage space.
Disabling Offline Sync
To protect your local hard drive space and stop Google Docs from automatically downloading and caching your recent files for offline use, you must disable the global offline setting in Google Drive.
The setting that controls this behavior for Google Docs is actually managed within the main Google Drive interface. Open Google Chrome and navigate to drive.google.com. Click the gear icon in the top-right corner of the screen and select Settings. In the “General” tab that opens, scroll down until you see the section labelled Offline. You will see a checkbox next to the text “Create, open, and edit your recent Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides files on this device while offline.” Uncheck this box. A small notification will appear confirming that offline access is disabled, and Chrome will subsequently purge the local cache of your downloaded documents, freeing up your storage space.