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Google Photos will end its free unlimited storage in June 2021

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Re: Google Photos will end its free unlimited storage in June 2021

#21

Post by actuator »

th0ma5 wrote: post #7

Whatever... I just wish they actually let you manage your own content. I guess I could just download it all, but I certainly can't sort by size or really do just about anything useful in staying under the limits, so I feel really strong-armed into paying.

Does something like this help? https://support.google.com/googleone/answer/9776477

I prefer not to manage the content actually. It is way better for Photos to group on dates, location, content. That way finding content becomes way easier on different dimensions.

Re: Google Photos will end its free unlimited storage in June 2021

#22

Post by ugh123 »

I think Google is missing a clear opportunity to compete with Instagram and the like. Google Photos is nearly default on just about every new and recent android phone in the world and its "partner" sharing feature (limited to just 1 partner) resembles a private IG-like share experience.

Imagine having that breadth of user base already active in your app but not simply adding a public network around it (with adequate privacy controls). Add a few ads here and there and it could pay for itself...

Re: Google Photos will end its free unlimited storage in June 2021

#25

Post by actuator »

ugh123 wrote: post #22

I think Google is missing a clear opportunity to compete with Instagram and the like. Google Photos is nearly default on just about every new and recent android phone in the world and its "partner" sharing feature (limited to just 1 partner) resembles a private IG-like share experience. Imagine having that breadth of user base already active in your app but not simply adding a public network around it (with adequate…

Please, no. Photos has way more personal photos of mine. I would prefer to pay and have my content be there without ads.

Also, maybe I am the odd one out here but I don't like concept of public sharing. The only reason I have wanted to upload pictures on Instagram instead of individually sharing photos with my friends is to make my dating profile look better.

Re: Google Photos will end its free unlimited storage in June 2021

#26

Post by Fogest »

ggm wrote: post #11
speedgoose wrote: post #4

Tldr: low quality but unlimited storage is expensive, so it will go away in June. However everything uploaded before will not use space for some time. High quality storage has never been unlimited so no changes. A Google Photos storage policy update I would love to read is some guarantee that I can download a backup of my photos if my Google account gets blocked for some reasons.

> A Google Photos storage policy update I would love to read is some guarantee that I can download a backup of my photos if my Google account gets blocked for some reasons. This doesn't exist. But you can schedule a year of e.g. 2 monthly incremental takeouts at takeout.google.com and stop-limit your dataloss scenario to a window. btw: I think it should exist. I think google should clarify its 'we terminated you' pro…

This is exactly what I do. Every 2 months I get an email about a new backup being ready. If I know I have done a lot of stuff on my google account in the last 2 months I'll download a fresh archive of it and dump it to my NAS. It's kinda a tedious process since I have to go through and download all the zip files they have.

Re: Google Photos will end its free unlimited storage in June 2021

#27

Post by teen »

hackily wrote: post #18

> If you have a Pixel 1-5, photos uploaded from that device won’t be impacted. Photos and videos uploaded in High quality from that device will continue to be exempt from this change, even after June 1, 2021. All good things come to an end, but at least they still honor the promise they made with the Pixel phones.

I bought a Pixel 1 and never got the free storage of raw photos. Eventually had to export everything to dropbox and convert everything to lower quality within photos. There is no way to fix this.

Re: Google Photos will end its free unlimited storage in June 2021

#28

Post by seized »

cglong wrote: post #15

Interesting to keep photos uploaded from Pixels exempt from this new policy.

Pixels have always had that special selling point but newer ones have an end date of free storage for original quality. I think only the Pixel 1 has lifetime storage.

Re: Google Photos will end its free unlimited storage in June 2021

#29

Post by washadjeffmad »

jeffbee wrote: post #8

Huh, I wonder if Google will also fix their incredibly bad "Backup and Sync" program for MacOS, which over the years has added thousands of copies of every photo on my Mac into Google Photos, making photos virtually useless to me and presumably racking up the virtual disk usage of my account. I'm happy to pay for storage but seriously this is one of the worst programs I have ever encountered.

Originally for Picasa, but still relevant: https://sites.google.com/site/picasaresources/Home/Picasa-FA...

Tl;dr - Either filter and curate online, or deduplicate. Also, fix your backup settings.

Re: Google Photos will end its free unlimited storage in June 2021

#30

Post by mvgoogler »

jcomis wrote: post #20

I wonder if they will ever fix the problem when you actually do upgrade to google one, there is no way to make your old photos go from "high quality" to "full res" without bringing them on to a desktop device, uploading them a second time, and often getting duplicates. I'm a paying customer and I can't even back up my old photos in full res that are on my device without a TON of work.

That is supported on at least Android (I think it is on iOS as well, but I'm not 100% sure). When you switch the backup options from High-Quality to Original quality you should get a prompt asking if you want to re-upload the photos on your device in Original Quality.
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