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PSA: No more free “unlimited” tier for Google Photos by 2021

I

ian87w

macrumors G3
Original poster
Feb 22, 2020
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https://blog.google/products/photos/storage-changes/

By June of 2021, there will be no more unlimited storage for Google Photos (unless you’re Pixel user). This is a heads up for those using the free unlimited “high quality” uploads.

If you are considering switching to original quality (if they are going to count towards the storage quota, might as well upload the original quality imo), make sure you enable HEIC and HEVC on your camera app if your phone support it. Any space savings format will be useful. :)
 
A tip for anyone with a Chromebook, on the perks page for Chromebooks I saw 100 gigs Google cloud storage for a fairly cheap price. I'll check and see what it was
 
This is anti-competitive.
  1. Google makes Google Photos free
  2. Google encourages you to back up to Google Photos and delete from local devices
  3. Competitors go out of business because they have to charge to compete
  4. Google charges for Google Photos
 
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mclld said:
A tip for anyone with a Chromebook, on the perks page for Chromebooks I saw 100 gigs Google cloud storage for a fairly cheap price. I'll check and see what it was
Click to expand...
Here’s US pricing:

C21057D0-2B39-4FF2-AEFD-7FA639ED46AE.png
 
AustinIllini said:
This is anti-competitive.
  1. Google makes Google Photos free
  2. Google encourages you to back up to Google Photos and delete from local devices
  3. Competitors go out of business because they have to charge to compete
  4. Google charges for Google Photos
Click to expand...
Yeah, it’s a bit underhanded bait and switch for consumers as well.

My guess is Google was able to gather a ton of data for ML/AI and hit the point of diminishing returns so decided it was time to switch to a paid model for the service. It’s now essentially the Google/Android equivalent of what Apple does with iCloud, though with a better initial free tier.

I‘m personally a bit paranoid about having my photo/video library backed up so I’ll likely continue to keep my Google One 200 GB tier for the time being but once I hit that storage limit, I likely won’t keep it as Android/Google are my secondary services. I get 1 TB for free with my annual Office 365 subscription so I’ll just keep that as my secondary cloud back up solution.
 
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Reactions: 5105973
AustinIllini said:
This is anti-competitive.
  1. Google makes Google Photos free
  2. Google encourages you to back up to Google Photos and delete from local devices
  3. Competitors go out of business because they have to charge to compete
  4. Google charges for Google Photos
Click to expand...
Yeah google is too powerful along with Facebook and Twitter, they all need to have the hammer dropped on them
 
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tbayrgs said:
Is it? It wasn't last year when I bought my 4XL--first year they discontinued that offer, IIRC.
Click to expand...
They stopped offering free & unlimited full res. I just had an email saying they're discontinuing free unlimited high quality, but as a Pixel owner I'm unaffected.

I pay anyway to keep my camera roll & fav albums at full res.
 
Im using 2.2GB of storage on my Google photos. I may never get to 15GB lol. I dont keep every pic i take. My Wife......she takes three of the same pic and keeps them all.

Anyways, still cheaper than Apples $100 for 50 GB of storage.
 
Vegastouch said:
Im using 2.2GB of storage on my Google photos. I may never get to 15GB lol. I dont keep every pic i take. My Wife......she takes three of the same pic and keeps them all.

Anyways, still cheaper than Apples $100 for 50 GB of storage.
Click to expand...

Apple’s pricing for iCloud storage is nearly identical to Google One. Google definitely offers the better initial free option but after that, tiers are priced about the same.
 
tbayrgs said:
Apple’s pricing for iCloud storage is nearly identical to Google One. Google definitely offers the better initial free option but after that, tiers are priced about the same.
Click to expand...
Shows above that Google for 100 GB is $19.99. ICloud for 50 GB is $100. Unless what I saw was different and for something else.

Anyways between Google and Amazon Photos I won't need to pay anything. If you have Amazon Prime, Amazon Photos is unlimited. And sure Amazon Prime costs money but you get so much more with Prime.
 
Last edited:
Vegastouch said:
Shows above that Google for 100 GB is $19.99. ICloud for 50 GB is $100. Unless what I saw was different and for something else.

Anyways between Google and Amazon Photos I won't need to pay anything. If you have Amazon Prime, Amazon Photos is unlimited. And sure Amazon Prime costs money but you get so much more with Prime.
Click to expand...
I think @defender was being facetious--50 GB of iCloud costs $0.99/month, while 200 GB costs $2.99/month, same as Google. Google does offer that ability to save a little if you pay for an entire years at a time.
 
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AustinIllini said:
This is anti-competitive.
  1. Google makes Google Photos free
  2. Google encourages you to back up to Google Photos and delete from local devices
  3. Competitors go out of business because they have to charge to compete
  4. Google charges for Google Photos
Click to expand...
It’s the basic bait and switch tactic. I myself never fall for it, but I’m sure there are a lot of people who are used to the “unlimited” idea and got caught sooner or later with storage limits.
 
defender said:
Anyone suggest any alternatives? Perhaps something self hosted?
Click to expand...
For iOS users, iCloud is the better choice anyway as iCloud offers more seamless features and abilities for Apple users.

If you are an Office 365 subscriber (like me), you already have 1TB OneDrive storage. I use OneDrive for my photos, and it integrates nicely with Windows 10 and Samsung gallery app. Definitely the better choice for Samsung users. The only downside is that Microsoft doesn’t have a dedicated Photos app. It’s all within the OneDrive app if you’re not a Samsung user.
 
I have been paying for my Google storage and Apple storage. I was dismayed to learn Samsung no longer will have my data backups and I have to move to One Drive. I’ve already got my Samsung gallery backed up to Google. I’m not sure I’ll be losing anything essential when they delete my data. I’m trading my S20 to Apple and exiting Samsung for awhile anyway. I am retaining Pixels to represent for Android in my house. My Microsoft accounts are a bit messy. I need to sort through and get on the same page as my husband with our accounts. We have family accounts. I had individual accounts. I’m not using everything fully. At some point I signed on to too many services during free trials and need to round them up and kill a few.

I also used Amazon for photo storage but reached some sort of cap. I don’t back up to them anymore.
 
I would like to use an S3 competitor with something like Cryptomator / Cyberduck backing up on wifi directly to the cloud. Wasabi is just $5.99/month for 1TB.

App recommendations for that?
 
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