Last June 1 marked the first anniversary of a difficult decision taken by Google: the final farewell to unlimited storage for its best service, Google Photos. Images and videos compressed by app to save space they started consuming each account’s own spacethe 15 GB that Google offers for free.
From Xataka Android, we have recommended Google Photos many times, We’ve always found your gallery backup service unbeatable. So much so that most equipment was used before the end of unlimited storage. Then we all had to adapt, each in our own way.
Google’s decision to end unlimited Google Photos storage was a major setback for my photo organization. After such a decision by Google, the last thing I was willing to do was pay for more storage, so I opted for alternatives like Amazon Photos.
The user experience was, in my opinion, too far removed from Google Photos, so I ended up backing off. The solution? Transfer the copy to another Google Photos account with your free 15GB, and switch between accounts. It’s not the most comfortable, but I don’t want to go through the box, especially in the current context.
My case is a bit special because I have a Google Pixel 5 and yes I kept unlimited storage in Photos. I had to do a bit of engineering, though, as I moved all the photos from my Google Suite account to my regular Gmail account to maintain capacity. It was a bit messy but I finally got it.
At the time of the jump an error occurred, and since then Photos tells me that I have 33 megabytes occupied but absolutely everything I download is loaded without taking up space. So as long as you keep the Pixel, you’ll be fine. At least I think so, of course. I don’t plan to expand with Google One for this reason, we’ll see in the future.
I am one of those specimens who, if they existed, would be diagnosed with Digital Diogenes Syndrome. And it is that, for years, there have been few photos that I delete and, unfortunately, few that I order. And I say unfortunately because when I wanted to order it was too late. I started considering cloud storage in 2017, the year I only used Apple. And iCloud was the most comfortable.
Seeing that cloud storage services like Google offered unlimited storage was very tempting, but I never really jumped in for that convenience’made in apple‘ what it’s like to have your entire ecosystem of products (mobile, tablet and desktop). It’s true that now, when I use Android, I have to send the photos manually to the Apple cloud and it’s not comfortable at allbut having contracted other services from the Apple company, it does not pay to hire them individually to leave iCloud in favor of Google because I would pay much more.
I remember when the news came that Google Photos had gone paid. I got overwhelmed, I started looking at NAS drives to set up my personal cloud, I looked for alternatives on other platforms… In the end I didn’t do any of that. It’s more, a year later I still haven’t done anything. It wasn’t so bad either, was it? Well yes and no.
I have the 200GB plan on Google Drive and the situation now is that I have 12GB left to fill them (thanks to compressed storage, they lasted longer than I thought). The solution is going to be to pay for the 2TB plan, because make no mistake, I have neither the time nor the inclination to move all these photos and videos to another site and Google Photos is too comfortable. I wish there was a middle ground between 200GB and 2TB, but I guess that’s where the trick is. So I’m going to jump through hoops, but that’s okay, I already knew that a year ago.
The Google Photos policy change caught me right in the middle of a personal transition from Android to iOS. And to pay for my photos, I preferred to finalize the migration to iCloud and Apple’s photo service. It’s not as comprehensive as Googlebut it integrates better with the devices I currently use.
Personally, this Google Photos policy change was one more nail in the particular coffin I made for Google (I was in love with Google+ and Google Inbox), and perhaps what made me lose all confidence in any service of the company. In summary: when google photos started loading i deleted all my photos from the service and haven’t used it since. Also, I’m very careful with any other service launched by Google, because I know for sure that they will eventually break or remove it.
Since quitting the Google Photos unlimited factor, I had been uploading photos to the service for a few months, but to my 15GB free account. However, I realized that very soon all my space would be full. instead of paying I decided to switch to Amazon Photos
The upload is going well and although I miss things like having the video there (Amazon does not cover you unlimited with Prime
Despite the limits set by Google for photos in their app to have a storage limit, I have to admit that I continue to use the app. I have been using the 200 GB plan for a long time, the limit does not worry me too much; which does not mean that he abandoned a series of practices. Before there was no problem and now it’s there, especially considering that the space is also shared with Drive. There, I sometimes work with larger volumes of data.
In this sense and to preserve a certain order in Google Photos, I constantly check the photos that I upload, eliminating those that I do not consider interesting or duplicates, just as I control the uploading of videos, especially the larger ones; I always prefer to have them on a physical hard drive if they are of particular interest.
For now, I’m surviving without paying anything extra to Google, having done a deep cleanup of Google’s shared storage earlier this year: from deleting old emails from Gmail to stopping using Drive as backup. So I went from having 90% of the space occupied to less than 50%.
Of course, that was six months ago. Right now the space is starting to fill up again and is currently at 75%. It will eventually fill up, that’s for sure, and when it does, it’s highly likely buy the cheapest Google One plan. Until strictly necessary, I’ll stick with the free plan.
Since my current phone is a Pixel 3, I still take advantage of unlimited Google Photos storage. The only change I’ve had is that since February saves are made in Saving quality so as not to occupy cloud storage; Which means that photos and videos are stored at slightly lower quality due to compression; which is the quality that Google offered to other devices until the end of unlimited storage. And with this quality, I have plenty.
When I renew my current mobile, what I will do to continue enjoying the unlimited storage will be to transfer the photos and videos to the Google Pixel 3 to enjoy the lifetime unlimited storage that Google offered until the Pixel 5. When the Pixel 3 crashes, I will continue to use Google Photos, but I will select very well the photos and videos that I want to have in the cloud to avoid having to pay.
In my case, I decided not to pay Google for more storage. And I did it for two reasons: first, because I already pay Apple for iCloud, and second, because I started taking advantage of the unlimited Amazon Photos storage that Amazon Prime gives me. The problem? That for work I have to scan a lot of Android phones and I use Drive frequently, so I hit the limit of that free 15GB a few weeks ago.
Since then, I’ve been constantly forced to free up space and I’m getting fed up with it. It is very likely, to my great dismay, that end up paying 19.99 dollars per year that it will cost me to increase this space to 100 GB. I will live much calmer.
I have a special experience with Google Photos since I keep my old G Suite account, Google’s business option which, among other options, continues to offer me unlimited storage in Photos. However, I didn’t have to adapt in any wayI keep downloading what I want and the maximum resolution.
I keep the work account because I use the domain management that Gmail offers, unlimited Google Photos storage is a side benefit. And the truth is that it gives a lot of peace of mind: I know that my galleries, my shared albums and my backup copies are safe because the respective cameras recorded the photos. Of course Google told me they were going to migrate my account from G Suite to Workspace, I’m afraid the deal will end soon.
