What Happened to Google’s Free Photo Storage?

Why is it things have to change? Everything was fine with Google’s old policy regarding photo storage. Now Google had to change their free photo storage in Photos and Drive.

Where Did All the Free Google Photo Storage Go?

It’s not fair! According to PCWorld, you no longer have the ability to store unlimited high-resolution images in Google Photos. Now you are being encouraged to sign up for a Google One storage subscription service instead. Let’s see what Google has to say about their new policy.

What Is the New Updated Storage Policy?

Per the Google Photos Help page, the tech giant restructured their photo storage policy in the middle of this year. Your new photos (and videos) that you back up in High quality (The new name is Storage saver) will now count towards your 15 GB Google Account storage or any additional storage you may have purchased as a Google One member.

Even though the name of your High-quality storage tier may have changed, your photos will remain stored at an identical quality.

Oh no! You reached your storage limit. What do you do now? You have two options:

* You can upgrade to Google One (if it’s available to you) or
* You can use Photos’ storage management tool.

Here are a few important notes you need to be aware of according to Google’s Help page:

* Any photos or videos you’ve backed up in High quality or Express quality before June 1, 2021, won’t count toward your Google Account storage.
* Photos and videos backed up in Original quality will continue to count toward your Google Account storage. Learn more about photo and video backup options.
* Photos backed up in Original quality and then compressed to Storage saver quality (previously named High quality) after June 1, 2021, will count toward your Google Account storage.

Can You Manage Your Google Photo Storage?

Sure, you can. Confound it; Google found their loophole. Gone forever is the option for you to have free Google photo storage. It’s time for you to learn how to manage the Google photo storage that you have.

With a Google One plan, your storage is shared across Photos, Drive, and Gmail. You can, of course, add more storage by logging into your Google account and upgrading to the next tier. When you first log in, you will be reminded of what your current storage level is.

You don’t want to upgrade to additional storage? Free up space across Gmail, Google Photos, and Google Drive by reviewing and deleting extra, discarded, and large items. Included are deleting emails, spam, and large files that you no longer use. Oh, I neglected to mention that you can also delete emails that you threw in the trash but have not deleted permanently yet.

Come Back Free Storage!

No, I’m sorry. Google’s free photo storage is gone. Don’t despair, though. The tips we mentioned above are a good start on your adventure to master Google photos.

Tags: Google photo storage, Google storage management

Categorised in: Technology Information

This post was written by Pam Lokker