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Google requiring all ‘G Suite legacy free edition’ users to start paying

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Re: Google requiring all ‘G Suite legacy free edition’ users to start paying

#41

I created a free account many years ago for my family. We've all been using it ever since for everything. So I have a lot of purchases and history in there. All of my YouTube stuff, all of my Android purchases. Everything to do with Google. And now they're going to start charging me $70 per family member or delete all of their purchases for the last decade or so. To say I'm aghast is putting it mildly.

(full disclosure, I work for Google but have no special insights here other than reading the article) My interpretation is that you'll still be able to use your account on Youtube, Play Store, etc. You'll just lose the workspace specific features like Drive, so use the tools that let you dump that data.

I think that depends on how much storage this person is using. Google includes Photos against the billed quota, so if you have more than 15GB of photos then Google will surely do something, either restrict access or eventually delete the data.

Re: Google requiring all ‘G Suite legacy free edition’ users to start paying

#42
I have one simple rule. Never rely on Google for anything. Not email, not cloud storage, not infrastructure, *anything*. If you're going to use one of their products, cost-in the expense of moving everything out at a moments notice and keep constant backups of your data. My advice to anyone is to just avoid using Google for anything you expect to use long term.

Re: Google requiring all ‘G Suite legacy free edition’ users to start paying

#43

Unsure if this is true or not as I haven’t received anything as of yet. Finally, actual motivation to get off google. Probably will go to Outlook premium for my own domain’s email.

Yeah thinking the same. Microsoft 365 most likely the best switch for me. With 2 users and my custom domain, for cheaper might as well get 1TB cloud storage and Office as well.

iCloud+ may also be an option.

Re: Google requiring all ‘G Suite legacy free edition’ users to start paying

#44

I created a free account many years ago for my family. We've all been using it ever since for everything. So I have a lot of purchases and history in there. All of my YouTube stuff, all of my Android purchases. Everything to do with Google. And now they're going to start charging me $70 per family member or delete all of their purchases for the last decade or so. To say I'm aghast is putting it mildly.

How are you calculating $70 per family member?

>> Plans start at $6 /user/month

$6 * 12 = $72

Re: Google requiring all ‘G Suite legacy free edition’ users to start paying

#45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

(full disclosure, I work for Google but have no special insights here other than reading the article) My interpretation is that you'll still be able to use your account on Youtube, Play Store, etc. You'll just lose the workspace specific features like Drive, so use the tools that let you dump that data.

"After 60 days in suspension, you will no longer have access to Google Workspace core services, such as Gmail, Calendar, and Meet" From https://support.google.com/a/answer/60217

Exactly, since Android and Youtube aren't "workspace core services" (the next sentence after the one you quoted explicitly mentions YT and Photos), your purchases are probably safe past the deadline.

Re: Google requiring all ‘G Suite legacy free edition’ users to start paying

#46

Unsure if this is true or not as I haven’t received anything as of yet. Finally, actual motivation to get off google. Probably will go to Outlook premium for my own domain’s email.

> Probably will go to Outlook premium for my own domain’s email. Microsoft discontinued that and increased the price under O365.

Really? I just looked at Microsoft 365 pricing, and it comes with Outlook Premium.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/get-a-personalize...

Re: Google requiring all ‘G Suite legacy free edition’ users to start paying

#47
post #18

I've been meaning to migrate but am more than a little leery of the potential for gotchas and disruption. Any advice from those who have gone through this already? I understand you just lose all your Google Play purchases and need to re-purchase any apps or subscriptions you want to keep. I'm assuming this will basically require an Android phone factory reset and to be setup fresh with a "new" Google account for the…

I went through this last year. It was relatively smooth, but I did do a factory reset and spent a couple hours on the project just to be sure.

I have been plagued by account problems for years, though, having signed up for services like YouTube with a personal email prior to creating the same email address in Google Workspace. I recommend avoiding it, and just using a free Gmail account for basic usage of Google docs and YouTube and your phone.

Re: Google requiring all ‘G Suite legacy free edition’ users to start paying

#48

I created a free account many years ago for my family. We've all been using it ever since for everything. So I have a lot of purchases and history in there. All of my YouTube stuff, all of my Android purchases. Everything to do with Google. And now they're going to start charging me $70 per family member or delete all of their purchases for the last decade or so. To say I'm aghast is putting it mildly.

At least the history bit can be saved thanks to Google Takeout.

Re: Google requiring all ‘G Suite legacy free edition’ users to start paying

#49
I'm a Google employee who just found out about this. I'm not annoyed that I have to pay, it's been ~13 years of free service and I don't think Google is obligated to continue providing this to me.

The annoying part is that Google doesn't provide any migration tool, but there are migration tools for Google Edu accounts so that graduating students can migrate their data to personal Google accounts. The software is evidently mostly written and tested, but for whatever reason it hasn't been brought over the finish line for other workspace users.

Obviously our use case isn't that common (it's been "legacy" for years) but still annoying to know that there's probably some script I could run to do this, but nobody has built the web UI for it.

Re: Google requiring all ‘G Suite legacy free edition’ users to start paying

#50

Long-time user of "Google Apps for Your Domain".....what's the easiest way to migrate 10 family members to regular Gmail?

I don't think there is a good option here because I don't think you can use the same domain. You would need to switch to a service that can have multiple mailboxes on a domain.
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