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Google has done it again. It is shutting down one of the most popular features in its product universe: free unlimited Google Photo storage. The company has stated that it will end this service as of June 1, 2021.
After this date, all photos uploaded will count towards your 15 GB free data limit. However, all photos uploaded before June 1 of next year will still be available under the free unlimited storage option.
Google Photos, which has over a billion users, has offered free unlimited storage for high-quality (read: compressed) photos to users across all platforms. So it was easy to just turn on the back and sync option with this quality setting and let your photos upload to the cloud without any storage issues. I’ve relied on it to back up photos from all the Android and iOS devices I’ve used over the years.
The company said Photos hosts more than 4 trillion photos and videos, with users uploading 28 billion each week. He added that while media downloads count towards your 15GB free data limit, 80% of users will not reach that limit for 10 years.
Compressed images in Google Photos take up approximately 1-4MB of space. So you can easily insert over 300 photos per GB. So with Gmail and Drive storage you will still have plenty of space for many photos. You can check your current Google Photos storage usage here.
Since uploading your photo from next June will count towards your storage limit. You may want to regularly check the photos you want to keep. Fortunately, the Big G has said it will roll out a new storage management tool for Google Photos next year, so you can easily erase images that might not be worth the effort.
If you still need more storage space, you will have to pay. If you use multiple devices, it might be a good idea to use Google Photos by paying for additional storage through a Google One subscription. Plans start at $ 1.99 per month for 100GB of storage, and prices may vary by country. On a personal level, you can get plans for up to 2TB of space.
For simply storing photos, Flickr is a great service. It allows you to host 1000 media items with 200MB file limit for pictures and 1GB file limit for videos. This is very handy if you are only backing up items from your phone’s camera. Alternatively, you can go Pro with an annual plan of $ 5.99 per month – and that gives you unlimited storage. Probably the best option if you take a ton of photos from your phone and camera.
Then there’s Dropbox, which offers 2TB of space for a $ 9.99 per month annual plan for individuals. You can check out other plans here. If you’re deep into the Apple ecosystem, it makes sense that you get some additional iCloud storage after you’ve used up the 5GB space by default. Apple offers plans starting at $ 0.99 for 50 GB per month. You can check prices in all countries here.
Unlimited Google Photos storage is a popular feature around the world. But free things don’t last forever. This move by Google makes more sense than its ruthless product shutdowns which included Inbox and Google Reader. Moreover, it could also mean that other cloud storage providers have the opportunity to come up with some amazing deals and attract some customers from Google.
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Published November 12, 2020 – 05:33 UTC
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