Google has made a change to the Google Workspace Starter edition which will impact several customers. The previous 30GB quota allowed unlimited storage of photos and attachments, this has now changed. Some customers may now find, they are over quota and as from January 2024, their e-mail could be impacted unless they check and make an adjustment.
Further Information from Google can be found here
You can check what storage you are using as an organisation with multiple users or as an individual using just one account. To get started, login to https://admin.google.com - This will allow you to check your storage usage.
Check your Google Storage
Visit this direct link https://admin.google.com/u/0/ac/storage or login to admin.google.com and click on Storage in the left-hand menu. This will show you how much space you use in Drive, Photos, and Email.
Decide what you plan to do
There are two options IF you are over quota either on a solo account or have users within your organisation who will be over quota in January. NOTE: This primarily impacts Google Workspace 'Starter Edition' which is limited to 30GB.
- upgrade from Google Starter to Google Business - This gives you 1TB (1000GB) of storage per user, rather than 30GB
- remove files, photos and purge old emails and attachments to reduce your storage use
The first option is the simplest. Pay more per month (or annually) and increase your storage limits. If you choose, this, nothing more needs doing and you can continue using Google Workspace with more storage available to you.
The second option is more complex. Your job here is to reduce your usage. I would start by looking at your Photos usage. Previously, Google said you could upload as many photos as you wanted, and it would not form part of your overall quota. Now it does. So, the first thing to do is check if you are using Google Photos on your phone, and 'backing up camera photos and sending to google'.
- If you are using Google Photos on your phone - turn it off and use another method of storing your photos (local or cloud provider)
- You can download your photos from Google via https://takeout.google.com and then store them somewhere else
- Once you have downloaded your photos from Google Takeout, you will need to delete them all from Google Photos
- You may need to look up how to remove photos via a Google Search but this link may help initially
Once you have safely downloaded your photos via Google Takeout + stored your photos safely elsewhere + deleted your photos in Google Photos online, your overall quota in Google Workspace will be reduced. You may need to do more, as explained below.
If you are still over-quota and need to reduce storage further, consider the following:
- Go to https://drive.google.com and review uploaded files - remove old files as needed
- Go through your email at https://mail.google.com and reduce storage by clearing out sent items, deleted items, spam and maybe emails older than 1 year for example. Remember to delete and then clear the bin, to be able to see updated storage usage.
Tip: When searching sent items, you could first filter by attachments and clear any attachments that weigh a lot. As we often send videos or zip files which can use a lot of storage, these would be good to clear out. IF you think you might need these, use Google Takeout to download before you purge old emails and attachments.
Remember, as you go, you can review usage at /admin.google.com/u/0/ac/storage
If you need help from W.E.B.S Ltd
We are here to help existing and new customers, if needed but our time is not free. We are on hand to assist any customers who need support and will charge for the time it takes to support you. You may not need it, so only contact us IF you are over quota and have no idea how to solve the problem.
Our opinion
With the cost of almost everything increasing, the once-free photo storage has clearly become an issue. We are seeing some clients with 30GB accounts using over 200GB of data, so Google has taken action which means you pay for what you use or change how you operate and cease using their photo storage. Often, Google Photos is a backup, BUT some people, may upload photos and then clear them from their phones. We would hate to see customers lose family photos or important images, so please take time to investigate this properly.
Cost of Google Workspace Packages
Visit this link for updated prices https://www.webs.limited/google-workspace/
