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A couple of years ago, I created a plain old GMail account and transferred all of my mail to it, mainly so I could get all of the Google Now features that Apps

by natrius 11y ago

A couple of years ago, I created a plain old GMail account and transferred all of my mail to it, mainly so I could get all of the Google Now features that Apps accounts didn't have yet. I still send as my own email address, but I never log into Google Apps account because Google Apps accounts are terrible. I highly recommend abandoning your account. Use a real GMail account. There's a one time switching cost, and it's worth it.

buro9 11y ago
The switching cost is considerable and not realistically achievable for anyone that has embraced the Google world beyond email. I would have to migrate: * Android app purchases. * Android apps that use the Google account for identity. * Data in Google Fit * Data in Google Maps including reviews and ratings of restaurants and places visited (which I find useful when I re-visit a city) * Data in Google Calendars * Address that others use for Calendar invites * Address that others use for Google Drive shared folders * Google Drive data, including configuration of permissions on folder access * Google Photos, including configuration of permissions. These are photos going back to 1996, 100k+ photos. * Browser sync * Browser stored data, passwords and autofill * Android backup * Google Keep * Group memberships * Group ownerships, and somehow move those groups * YouTube videos uploaded, and preferences * Android TV apps and configuration All of that, is just what I have on my Google Account that is on a Google Hosted domain. And even if it were possible to somehow migrate that... I would most definitely lose all of the history that so much of that represents. i.e. Google Fit history, Maps Timeline history and so on. Others may have it worse than I, I haven't got anything in Google+. All of this works, and it works really well. It's a great offering, and I'm a much happier consumer paying for this than not. But... it's silo'd. Even intra-family every one of us has our own account. We were really hoping that Google Hosted gave us a path to treat our family as an organisation and to share within... but that's not how it's panned out. So we've been hoping that Play Music for Families represents the ability to create a shared group for the family, just a group with a couple of accounts, and these can share stuff. Starting with Music, but hopefully eventually reaching Photos, TV, Video, etc. Instead it does look like the definition of "Family" is "Gmail accounts", not "a small group of immediately related individuals"... and in that latter definition, who cares whether an individual has a Google Hosted account?
- aqzman 11y ago
  Fantastic comment. Thankfully I don't have an Apps account so this isn't really a concern for me, but it's almost scary to see the list you provided, it made me realize just how truly entrenched I am to Google's ecosystem. I use almost every feature you listed. At a certain point moving away from Google's ecosystem just because unfeasible because you come to rely so heavily on certain products in your day-to-day life.
  - buro9 11y ago
    It was only after I wrote it that it dawned on me that I use my Google Account for authentication with a number of third parties. About 90% of things I use email + password (and 2FA where available), but that last 10% is a mix of Google authenticated, or Twitter authenticated. Because Google Accounts are an identity provider, even if I wanted to move I really have no way to do that now.
- gst 11y ago
  Google is quite bad at those things. Want another example: Setup the Google Merchant center with your account and you can't change the country of your account anymore. Moving country and you want to change the country so that you can, e.g., install Android apps that are only available in particular countries? In that case you have to create a new Gmail account. (More information: http://www.androidpolice.com/2015/11/21/psa-you-cant-change-your-google-accounts-country-if-its-tied-to-a-merchant-account/ http://www.androidpolice.com/2015/11/21/psa-you-cant-change-...). Also, it seems that the same issue might apply to Project Fi accounts (see: https://www.reddit.com/r/ProjectFi/comments/3utpe0/you_cant_change_your_country_because_you_have_a/ https://www.reddit.com/r/ProjectFi/comments/3utpe0/you_cant_...).
- stanleydrew 11y ago
  > * Google Drive data, including configuration of permissions on folder access It's worse than that: I think it's actually impossible to move ownership of Google docs/sheets/slides/etc from a hosted account to a gmail account and vice versa. Also impossible to transfer ownership between two hosted accounts. You can only transfer ownership between accounts in the same domain. Ran into this problem in a big way when my company's domain name changed and we were trying to migrate. All the solutions I found involved giving all your data to a third party. Or some complicated export/import conversion through MS-formatted equivalents. So even after a year on the new domain now, every so often I need to log back in to the old account just to get something from Drive.

by natrius 11y ago

buro9 11y ago

The switching cost is considerable and not realistically achievable for anyone that has embraced the Google world beyond email. I would have to migrate: * Android app purchases. * Android apps that use the Google account for identity. * Data in Google Fit * Data in Google Maps including reviews and ratings of restaurants and places visited (which I find useful when I re-visit a city) * Data in Google Calendars * Address that others use for Calendar invites * Address that others use for Google Drive shared folders * Google Drive data, including configuration of permissions on folder access * Google Photos, including configuration of permissions. These are photos going back to 1996, 100k+ photos. * Browser sync * Browser stored data, passwords and autofill * Android backup * Google Keep * Group memberships * Group ownerships, and somehow move those groups * YouTube videos uploaded, and preferences * Android TV apps and configuration All of that, is just what I have on my Google Account that is on a Google Hosted domain. And even if it were possible to somehow migrate that... I would most definitely lose all of the history that so much of that represents. i.e. Google Fit history, Maps Timeline history and so on. Others may have it worse than I, I haven't got anything in Google+. All of this works, and it works really well. It's a great offering, and I'm a much happier consumer paying for this than not. But... it's silo'd. Even intra-family every one of us has our own account. We were really hoping that Google Hosted gave us a path to treat our family as an organisation and to share within... but that's not how it's panned out. So we've been hoping that Play Music for Families represents the ability to create a shared group for the family, just a group with a couple of accounts, and these can share stuff. Starting with Music, but hopefully eventually reaching Photos, TV, Video, etc. Instead it does look like the definition of "Family" is "Gmail accounts", not "a small group of immediately related individuals"... and in that latter definition, who cares whether an individual has a Google Hosted account?

aqzman 11y ago
Fantastic comment. Thankfully I don't have an Apps account so this isn't really a concern for me, but it's almost scary to see the list you provided, it made me realize just how truly entrenched I am to Google's ecosystem. I use almost every feature you listed. At a certain point moving away from Google's ecosystem just because unfeasible because you come to rely so heavily on certain products in your day-to-day life.
- buro9 11y ago
  It was only after I wrote it that it dawned on me that I use my Google Account for authentication with a number of third parties. About 90% of things I use email + password (and 2FA where available), but that last 10% is a mix of Google authenticated, or Twitter authenticated. Because Google Accounts are an identity provider, even if I wanted to move I really have no way to do that now.
gst 11y ago
Google is quite bad at those things. Want another example: Setup the Google Merchant center with your account and you can't change the country of your account anymore. Moving country and you want to change the country so that you can, e.g., install Android apps that are only available in particular countries? In that case you have to create a new Gmail account. (More information: http://www.androidpolice.com/2015/11/21/psa-you-cant-change-your-google-accounts-country-if-its-tied-to-a-merchant-account/ http://www.androidpolice.com/2015/11/21/psa-you-cant-change-...). Also, it seems that the same issue might apply to Project Fi accounts (see: https://www.reddit.com/r/ProjectFi/comments/3utpe0/you_cant_change_your_country_because_you_have_a/ https://www.reddit.com/r/ProjectFi/comments/3utpe0/you_cant_...).
stanleydrew 11y ago
> * Google Drive data, including configuration of permissions on folder access It's worse than that: I think it's actually impossible to move ownership of Google docs/sheets/slides/etc from a hosted account to a gmail account and vice versa. Also impossible to transfer ownership between two hosted accounts. You can only transfer ownership between accounts in the same domain. Ran into this problem in a big way when my company's domain name changed and we were trying to migrate. All the solutions I found involved giving all your data to a third party. Or some complicated export/import conversion through MS-formatted equivalents. So even after a year on the new domain now, every so often I need to log back in to the old account just to get something from Drive.