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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

#61

While I instinctively knew Google is not to trust with the word "free", especially since "you're the product" isn't applicable as easily here as with other products, I still decided to thoroughly test Photos for a long while to see if they'd introduce some limits. They are a corporate entity out to make money (and externally pressured to make more quarter by quarter), so I fully get it. But for Photos, it almost seem…

I don't get this honestly. None of us will like if our photos are used for ads as they are deeply personal. How do you think this should be monetized then?

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

#62
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.

So if I upgrade my photos don't upgrade to full res automatically, but if I download them they are actually full res? I don't have the original photos anymore, that's why I'm asking if Google keeps the full res and I'm able to retrieve them with a paid plan.

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

#63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

More like “tapping that lucrative subscription revenue” because they finally have enough people locked in

That's my cue to start self-hosting again!

Is it cheaper and better though?

You will need to setup redundancy if you use your own hardware, verify your client and server scripts, take care of encryption etc.

Also, syncing anyone from Dropbox to Onedrive can do. I like the photo tagging to be powerful when I am looking for old photos.

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

#64
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…

I don't think it's to do with that. I think it's just a reflection that google is a large company with lots of different products, half of which are providing de facto free cloud storage, despite the fact that Google has a cloud storage offering. Also, by pushing the storage limit to onto a single Google account (rather than individual accounts for each product) they can push you into their suite of products (if you're already using the app with a rainbow coloured box icon they can push you to look at those other icons: like rainbox coloured box, or other rainbox coloured box, and the rainbow coloured box with a squiggle)

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

#65
post #47

I've found Microsoft Office to be the best deal for online storage. $70/year gets you a bunch of useful apps and 1TB of storage, or $100 year provides 1TB for up to 6 accounts. Nothing else seems to come close.

How do you store photos there? Do they make an Android client that syncs your phone's photos to the cloud?

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

#66
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…

"Running out" == "Doesn't want to give away for free"

I don't see any limits on Google Cloud Storage any time soon.

> Google Drive to delete trash after 30 days.

To be fair I would consider this a feature. This is how I expect trash to work. Someone takes it away on occasion.

> Google Docs to be counted as storage space

Oh, I missed this. I wonder how they are counting it? After all as a user you don't really have any insight on how much space a doc actually uses. I guess they are going to create some metric?

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

#67
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…

More like “tapping that lucrative subscription revenue” because they finally have enough people locked in

A major reason people use Google products is because it is free. Subscriptions will not work out well when the user base is 7 billion people large

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

#68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's my cue to start self-hosting again!

Is it cheaper and better though? You will need to setup redundancy if you use your own hardware, verify your client and server scripts, take care of encryption etc. Also, syncing anyone from Dropbox to Onedrive can do. I like the photo tagging to be powerful when I am looking for old photos.

Depends how lazy you are!

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

#69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's my cue to start self-hosting again!

Is it cheaper and better though? You will need to setup redundancy if you use your own hardware, verify your client and server scripts, take care of encryption etc. Also, syncing anyone from Dropbox to Onedrive can do. I like the photo tagging to be powerful when I am looking for old photos.

Hosting yourself is better than Google reading and disabling your account because you used a couple words that might violate it's TOS. I can't imagine a researcher trying to write a book in Google Docs about 1960's civil rights without tripping Google's abuse engines. It is creepy

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2017/11/01/google-rea...

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

#70
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…

"Running out" == "Doesn't want to give away for free" I don't see any limits on Google Cloud Storage any time soon. > Google Drive to delete trash after 30 days. To be fair I would consider this a feature. This is how I expect trash to work. Someone takes it away on occasion. > Google Docs to be counted as storage space Oh, I missed this. I wonder how they are counting it? After all as a user you don't really have an…

> "Running out" == "Doesn't want to give away for free"

All these limits were placed within the last few months. It's definitely a company wide policy to reduce load from free users

> I don't see any limits on Google Cloud Storage any time soon.

It's paid.

> Google Drive to delete trash after 30 days.

It used to be unlimited. Now it isn't. Which is what people expected.

> Oh, I missed this. I wonder how they are counting it? After all as a..

Not sure, but they might just add up the space taken by individual files? They previously excluded docs and it lead to hacks like these - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19907271

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