Google ending unlimited free photo storage from June 2021

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halper86

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#2603173 13-Nov-2020 09:03

Batman:

i'm not sure what the issue is - something was free and in a year it won't be free. ok so?

Free since its inception..

You could upload an unlimited amount (15GB a day) without them charging. Now they add a price to that. I myself have uploaded almost 100GB to it. Going to be an extra cost.

dafman

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#2603174 13-Nov-2020 09:03

davidcole:

Yeah recently started getting a bit concerned about google having all my shiz.....so stopped uploading to google photos and turned off facial recognition.

Me too. I am currently reading 'The Age of Surveillance Capitalism' and that has firmed up my decision to move as much as possible away from them. Every new Google 'service' is simply a trojan horse to harvest more and more personal data; we are now at a stage where many Google users happily install live microphones in every room of their house connected 24/7 to Google servers.

I am realistic, I am minimising, but not going full Google cold turkey.

Google Photos was a dilemma as it has all my photos in one place and was so convenient, so I was half thinking of keeping it - but Google have now helped me along here, so will move on from Photos.

What I have done to date to minimise Google use:

Stopped using Chrome and Google search, replaced with Brave / DuckDuckGo.
Restricted Gmail and Drive for non-personal correspondence like power bills/purchase receipts etc, moved all personal correspondence/files to alternatives.

In near future, I will move from Android to iPhone, and will migrate:

Google Keep to Apple notes
Google Maps/Android Auto to Apple Car Play.
Gmail/Drive to iCloud

Am hoping it will be possible to not have ANY Google apps or my Google account on the iPhone

For the foreseeable, I will remain with Google for music as subscribe to YouTube premium, so they will keep me for a while in this space.

ripdog

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#2603923 14-Nov-2020 21:09

halper86:

Batman:

i'm not sure what the issue is - something was free and in a year it won't be free. ok so?

Free since its inception..

You could upload an unlimited amount (15GB a day) without them charging. Now they add a price to that. I myself have uploaded almost 100GB to it. Going to be an extra cost.

Photos uploaded before the deadline will never be charged for. At least those are the current plans.

MikeB4

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#2603924 14-Nov-2020 21:34

Finished downloading all my photos today and closed all my Google services save Gmail. I was already doing this when they announced this but reiterates why I really dislike Google.

richms

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#2603925 14-Nov-2020 21:35

I thought it already did count against my space when uploading full quality stuff? Sure seems to be using up my 2TB I buy from them in anycase.

Richard rich.ms

mattwnz

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#2603926 14-Nov-2020 21:48

I think that only applies to full size images

richms

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#2603929 14-Nov-2020 21:58

Ah ok, I though that high quality was what that option was. Didnt realize they called the low quality option high quality. I have always had it on the origional option because when I tried the other option (Im sure it wasnt called high quality back then) it made them look like trash.

I think they are really feeling the squeeze for user generated content, youtube is now basically unwatchable except for 4k VP9 streams, the others are all really bad transcodes at absurdly low bitrates. They must have loved covid as an excuse for that change.

Richard rich.ms

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Dratsab

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#2603981 15-Nov-2020 09:20

richms: I think they are really feeling the squeeze for user generated content, youtube is now basically unwatchable except for 4k VP9 streams, the others are all really bad transcodes at absurdly low bitrates. They must have loved covid as an excuse for that change.

And the vids are absolutely stuffed full of ads now.

Edit: Back on topic - I've been in the process of downloading all my photo's from Google since they announced this move a while back. Haven't looked to see how GB there is but there's over years worth. Once I've worked out how to do an automatic backup to a local NAS I'll be switching off the Google auto backup.

rhy7s

623 posts

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#2604014 15-Nov-2020 10:42

dafman:
<p>In near future, I will move from Android to iPhone, and will migrate:</p>
<ul>
<li>Google Keep to Apple notes</li>
<li>Google Maps/Android Auto to Apple Car Play.</li>
<li>Gmail/Drive to iCloud</li>
</ul>
<p>Am hoping it will be possible to not have ANY Google apps or my Google account on the iPhone</p>

Switching to Apple doesn't really solve the surveillance and control issue though.

MikeB4

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#2604016 15-Nov-2020 10:53

rhy7s:

Switching to Apple doesn't really solve the surveillance and control issue though.

I stopped reading when I saw the name Stallman.

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