Google Photos will end its free unlimited storage in June 2021 • Hacker News Board

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

#561

Post by BoboDupla » Thu, Nov 12, 2020, 8:20 AM UTC

Xorlev wrote: post #244

mholt wrote: post #46

Time to dust off my side project, Timeliner [1] which downloads your Google Photos (and other content from various services) and indexes them in a local SQLite DB. Then after backing them up locally, I won't feel bad about deleting them from the cloud later to free up space. I've been using Timeliner for a while but need to update it. New maintainers welcomed, if you're interested! (One major "oof" is that the Google…

Exporting via Takeout will retain the geolocation tags. The API isn't the best place to export.

but the result is a mess - why can't Google just give me all my photos in a logical folder structure, but instead I get duplicate folders with .json files and pictures which are in a completely different folder.

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

#562

Post by wolfgke » Thu, Nov 12, 2020, 8:22 AM UTC

kinkrtyavimoodh wrote: post #178

Surprised to see the level of anger here about this. This is not the usual "Google kills product", it's the type of thing that HN loves to say they would be happy to pay for ("Just give me something that does A B C and doesn't show me ads and I would be happy to pay for it!!!", well I guess until you are actually asked to pay for it). Also, as a general rule, people should welcome big cos moving away from the "free s…

> This is not the usual "Google kills product", it's the type of thing that HN loves to say they would be happy to pay for ("Just give me something that does A B C and doesn't show me ads and I would be happy to pay for it!!!", well I guess until you are actually asked to pay for it).

Google still collects data.

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

#563

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Nov 12, 2020, 8:22 AM UTC

dontfiremepls wrote: post #407

nybble41 wrote: post #405

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The honest approach would be to either grandfather existing customers at the promised price point ($0)… This is exactly what they're doing. According to the announcement, photos uploaded in "high quality" (the previous free/unmetered tier) before June 1, 2021 will remain exempt from the storage quota. Only new photos uploaded after June 1, 2021 count against the quota. So not only are all the existing photos and vi…

We are going to lawyer this, aren't we? The service was promised for free, not per photo storage. The expectation is that the service will continue to be free. From what you're saying, (most of) the future use of the service, which consists of uploading and storing new photos, will be charged. Velvet gloves dumping.

[deleted]

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

#564

Post by leokennis » Thu, Nov 12, 2020, 8:27 AM UTC

vvoyer wrote: post #307

I pay for Google Photos and you should too if you care about your photos. I've used Dropbox, Apple Photos and Google Photos. Google Photos is hands down the best photo application for individuals. Mostly because its face/object/place/whatever recognition is the best of its kind. Dropbox: they are ignoring the photos needs from users. They focus on "enterprise cloud storage" and "workplace sharing". Apple: I love the…

I agree that Google Photos is better than iCloud in important aspects. However, for iPhone users, iCloud is so much more convenient that it makes up for the slight degradation in search quality etc.

Also, in general, do not rely on Google or Apple as backup of your photos. Use something like PhotoSync to back up to a second cloud location, and also keep a local backup.

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

#565

Post by pieter_mj » Thu, Nov 12, 2020, 8:27 AM UTC

Could these pictures be stored in a youtube video with sufficient quality?

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

#566

Post by levosmetalo » Thu, Nov 12, 2020, 8:51 AM UTC

andromeduck wrote: post #433

dontfiremepls wrote: post #407

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We are going to lawyer this, aren't we? The service was promised for free, not per photo storage. The expectation is that the service will continue to be free. From what you're saying, (most of) the future use of the service, which consists of uploading and storing new photos, will be charged. Velvet gloves dumping.

So if someone gives you a free beer for a the foreseeable future they also owe you free beer for life? What kind of entitlement is this?!

If you have an agreement with someone to give you a free beer for life, in exchange for your personal data, they should be allowed to back up? After already extracting all value for your data?

What kind of entitlement is this?

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

#567

Post by dusted » Thu, Nov 12, 2020, 8:52 AM UTC

I'm hearing Nelson from the Simpsons go "Haahaaa" in my head, because we all knew this would happen. Gmail is next.

This is why people need to host their own data.

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

#568

Post by dusted » Thu, Nov 12, 2020, 8:54 AM UTC

echelon wrote: post #319

kinkrtyavimoodh wrote: post #178

Surprised to see the level of anger here about this. This is not the usual "Google kills product", it's the type of thing that HN loves to say they would be happy to pay for ("Just give me something that does A B C and doesn't show me ads and I would be happy to pay for it!!!", well I guess until you are actually asked to pay for it). Also, as a general rule, people should welcome big cos moving away from the "free s…

I'm actually glad to see this. Unlimited storage is unsustainable. I don't like seeing things tied to advertising revenue. It's not comfortable from a privacy perspective, and it's certainly not competitive for other players wanting to enter the space without the dollars from Google's huge advertising funnel/marketplace/ecosystem. You'll notice Google also started to clamp down on Gmail trash storage space, and I'll…

"Will Google start deleting YouTube content that is super long tail and unviewed?"

That reminds me I should back up my youtube channel, I probably have videos on there that I don't have locally.

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

#569

Post by sam1r » Thu, Nov 12, 2020, 9:02 AM UTC

Didn’t Dropbox do something similar but at the time (2011) I believe, it was 2gb but unlimited.

Still, to this day in 2020, I receive quarterly emails of them threatening to close my account (next month they say)...and not provide access, which is fine because... I went over their limit with half .mic 4K movie blob of Avatar (or blue ray or whatever), since my ps3 ran out of space.

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

#570

Post by neop1x » Thu, Nov 12, 2020, 9:03 AM UTC

fomine3 wrote: post #468

kumarm wrote: post #367

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I never understand people on HN complaining about Ads on YouTube, life long Storage on Google Photos costing $. Probably for 90% of people on HN, it costs more (Opportunity cost) to type a comment complaining about ads on Youtube compared to a month subscription. But for some reason people like to complain.

There are people who complaining Ads but also avoids YouTube Premium. I don't know what they want. Pay option to remove ads is great, isn't it?

I am happily paying for YT Premium but also using youtube-dl ocassionally. There is great content on YT. On the other hand, I stopped paying and using Netflix. There was not enough interesting content for me.