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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

#191

Post by Fej »

ffpip wrote: post #40

Google is 100% running out of space. Google Photos no longer unlimited - https://www.theverge.com/2020/11/11/21560810/google-photos-u... GSuite no longer unlimited - https://9to5google.com/2020/10/08/google-workspace-drive-sto... Google Drive to delete trash after 30 days. Before, it stored till you perma deleted - https://gsuiteupdates.googleblog.com/2020/09/drive-trash-aut... Google Docs to be counted as storage sp…

YouTube allows free video uploads and ingests an incredible amount of content every day. Most of that content won't make any money, or just pennies, and yet they're storing it for free. They're not running out of space.

In retrospect, it's not surprising that they're ending the unlimited free ride. Most (all?) of the major photo hosting sites ended their unlimited free plans ages ago. Clearly it is not sustainable from a business perspective.

(I am not referring to the meme sites like Imgur who host images at a far lower resolution with a far higher compression ratio, which is of course useless for photos.)

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

#192

Post by sgrinich »

advisedwang wrote: post #55

Sad as I am to see "unlimited" go away, this is probably the best way to do it: * Grandfathering existing photos means I don't have to worry about going back and deleting objects or getting an sudden bump in cost. * 15 GB is pretty generous... iCloud includes 5GB for free. * $2/month isn't a huge jump to the next level of storage.

Heads up on the term 'grandfathering' and the racial overtones of what this means: https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2013/10/21/239081586...

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

#193

Post by fletchowns »

fouronnes3 wrote: post #135
walrus01 wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

the long term cost of buying something like a 12TB USB3.0 external hard drive and periodically letting it synchronize from your master copies, then unplugging it and storing it at a trusted family member's house is a great deal less than paying for 12TB+ of "cloud" storage indefinitely forever.

Sure, except no drive sync software is as convenient or user friendly as google photos.

Google Backup & Sync makes it very cumbersome to retain a local copy of your photos. They used to sync them to Google Drive, so you could at least use Backup & Sync to have local copies. However, they got rid of that feature some time in the last year.

I had to switch to using a third party app to sync my "photo reel" from my phone to Google Drive: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ttxapps.dr...

Then I use Google Backup & Sync to create a local copy on my desktop, scheduled SyncToy job to copy it to the NAS, and the NAS has a scheduled job to backup to Backblaze B2. In my setup, these irreplaceable photos & videos exist on my phone, Google, my desktop, my NAS, and Backblaze.

If you are relying on Google Backup & Sync to restore a large amount of data after a data loss event, you are in for a world of pain and disappointment. It simply does not handle any significant amount of data well. I had to stop backing up "My Computer" with Backup & Sync and just switched to using Google Drive. The files in Google Drive seem to be the only way to "restore" a large amount of files after a data loss event. If they are backed up under "My Computer" in Google Drive and you have a decent amount of data (50GB+), you will have no way to restore these files. The web interface will simply time out when you try to download them. The Backup & Sync client won't even attempt to download these files, even if you try the dead-end workarounds suggested on the web. You won't be able to drag them into your "Google Drive" folder as a workaround either. The whole thing is atrocious.

Google Backup & Sync is a fucking joke, and Google should be ashamed of themselves for releasing such a shitty product which does not actually help consumers protect against data loss. Consumers will only realize this at the point they are fucked and trying to restore their data.

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

#194

Post by andyjpb »

I guess the free lunch is finally over.

For ~15 years (since the launch of GMail) Google has differentiated itself on storage. Both in terms of products offerings and in terms of company image.

To me it signifies a change in the market. They don't feel like they currently need to compete with Apple or Microsoft on any of these fronts right now. The market is pretty stable and there are more battlefields ahead. So time to apply some levers at the points where everyone else is charging (iCloud) and get ready for the next big consumer adoption battle.

It makes sense right now but changes the playing field enough that some (old) disruption opportunities might start to open themselves up (again). I guess Google doesn't feel like those are a threat any more or right now tho'.

It'll be interesting to see what happens next. Bandwidth between handsets/eyeballs and datacenters is possibly one of the next most important costs and Google has a good story there. Lots of peering, a good network, and control of the software on both ends, so they are well positioned to make the most cost-effective use of that bandwidth.

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

#196

Post by ABeeSea »

warrentr wrote: post #154

Has anyone found a good family friendly alternative? In particular I would really like to: - Pay for the service (sustainable/trustworthy business model) - Be able to very tightly control access to albums as I really don't want kid photos ending up on facebook or similar due to crazy aunt kathy (in google photos anyone with access can add anyone else and until recently there was no way to remove people) - Ability to…

Probably not the answer HN is looking for, but if you are in the Amazon Prime ecosystem, their access control using “groups” is really nifty. And you are technically paying for it (unlimited photo storage for Prime members + optional additional paid storage for video.)

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

#197

Post by gowld »

warrentr wrote: post #154

Has anyone found a good family friendly alternative? In particular I would really like to: - Pay for the service (sustainable/trustworthy business model) - Be able to very tightly control access to albums as I really don't want kid photos ending up on facebook or similar due to crazy aunt kathy (in google photos anyone with access can add anyone else and until recently there was no way to remove people) - Ability to…

> - Ability to require a full/proper login for guests (no hard-to-guess urls as security)

What is the difference between a hard to guess password and a hard-to-guess URL?

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

#198

Post by mvgoogler »

deanclatworthy wrote: post #107

Pretty upset about this. I added the app to my mothers phone as it auto backs up everything at high enough quality for her at no cost. Trying to explain to a 65 year old woman with no computing skill how to set up a recurring subscription for online photo storage is going to be a tough ask.

Google One family subscriptions would be a good fit here. You can manage the subscription and just add your mother to the plan. It's what our family does.

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