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I created a free account many years ago for my family. We've all been using it ever since for everything. So I have a lot of purchases and history in there. All
by AndrewDucker 5y ago
I created a free account many years ago for my family. We've all been using it ever since for everything. So I have a lot of purchases and history in there. All of my YouTube stuff, all of my Android purchases. Everything to do with Google.
And now they're going to start charging me $70 per family member or delete all of their purchases for the last decade or so.
To say I'm aghast is putting it mildly.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- criddell 5y agoHow are you calculating $70 per family member?
- mig39 5y agoI guess it's $70 per user per year?
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- AndrewDucker 5y ago"Plans start at $6 /user/month" - $6x12months = $72 per year.
- criddell 5y agoOh I see. I thought you were saying $70 per month.
- gadders 5y ago>> Plans start at $6 /user/month $6 * 12 = $72
- mig39 5y agoYup, I'd pay $10 per month for my family. But I'm not paying $50 or $60 per month. The only difference over the free Google Workspaces is the domain name.
- signal11 5y agoA more reasonable approach would’ve been to offer custom domains as part of Google One, whose pricing is far more family-friendly. Eg, Google One provides 100GB of storage (shareable with your family Google accounts) for £16/year. Just let those who want that to link it to custom domains — Apple (iCloud+) and MS (MS 365) already offer this.
- echelon 5y agoPlease do this Google. This is what I'd imagine most of the people on Legacy Google Workspaces want.
- buggeryorkshire 5y agoExactly! Or provide a migration path - I went back to a standard gmail account, but the vast majority of my purchases, photos etc are in my old GAFYD account. Google are going to lose even more goodwill without a migration path.
- AndrewDucker 5y agoThat would be perfect for me!
- acegopher 5y agoThat would be a great solution. I would imagine many "legacy free" users are old GMail for Domains users who just want the same Google One functionality of @gmail.com addresses but with a custom domain.
- bsimpson 5y agoI don't even use my domain name for anything but email anymore, but I certainly don't want to give up the address I've been known by for a dozen years. As you can imagine, my username @gmail.com gets too much spam to be usable.
- Rebelgecko 5y ago(full disclosure, I work for Google but have no special insights here other than reading the article) My interpretation is that you'll still be able to use your account on Youtube, Play Store, etc. You'll just lose the workspace specific features like Drive, so use the tools that let you dump that data.
- AndrewDucker 5y ago"After 60 days in suspension, you will no longer have access to Google Workspace core services, such as Gmail, Calendar, and Meet" From https://support.google.com/a/answer/60217 https://support.google.com/a/answer/60217
- Rebelgecko 5y agoExactly, since Android and Youtube aren't "workspace core services" (the next sentence after the one you quoted explicitly mentions YT and Photos), your purchases are probably safe past the deadline.
- ocdtrekkie 5y agoHowever, now what do you sign into your Android device with? Google's products work... poorly... across multiple accounts. I needed to change my email address a number of years ago, which is impossible with Google's apparent use of email addresses as a primary key or something, and my Google account has had to live in a very messy state ever since... the old address has to be the core of the account for all services, even if I'm handing out and sending as a new address... and that account is an extra security vector into it... (Meanwhile, Microsoft just lets you add and remove email addresses from your Microsoft account, including changing and removing the primary.)
- g_p 5y agoI wonder if Google will support a workflow for users "leaving", whereby the can keep their "Google Account" under the same email address, but with Gmail disabled. This could be a reasonably low friction way to keep the system working without breaking the "email address is unchangeable per-account" assumption - the underlying Google account can continue to exist, even if the associated MX record disappears, or Google Workspace ceases to provide service. This is how Google accounts work today if you ignore the "default" sign-up path, and take the route where you create a Google account under an existing external email address.
- ocdtrekkie 5y agoDealing with the cloud will always be like dealing with Darth Vader. ("I am altering the deal. Pray I do not alter it any further.") The idea that anyone actually chooses to depend on this when alternatives are out there is incredible: It's simply a horrible arrangement for both consumers and businesses.
- pandemicsoul 5y agoTrue, but it's a compromise most of us are forced to make. The vast majority of people know that a custom domain name makes their email more professional, but wouldn't have the faintest idea of how to even begin to manage one if it weren't for services like this one. (Or, at the very least, wouldn't have known how to do it in 2007-2010 which this service was marketed as "free forever.") These cloud services are basically just "linux admin done for you" since most of us don’t have the expertise.
- newusertoday 5y agouse google takeout to take backup of your data asap.
- neogodless 5y agoGoogle Takeout is kind of a nightmare. Fortunately I already went through the hassle of extracting my photos a while back. It was something like 45 downloads of 2GB zip files, with really chaotic organization of photos. But I tried to do Google Takeout of just a few things, including Email (which is under 2GB usage) but not including photos. Somehow it still created 63 files, each 2GB in size. I just threw up my hands and gave up. I got my email using IMAP + Thunderbird, and I exported my contacts. The rest is going in the bin.
- hdjjhhvvhga 5y agoAt least the history bit can be saved thanks to Google Takeout.
- tyingq 5y agoDepending on what your family members do with it, you may be able to get by with one paid account and some aliases, routing, etc, to forward emails somewhere else.
- alias_neo 5y agoSame here, and I'm running it for extended family so I'm not planning to take on the cost (and neither are they). I need to find a nice alternative for email with my domain that's going to work for us and not cost me a fortune. I'm not even massively concerned about Play Store purchases, I barely use any paid apps anymore anyway I can buy them again if I have to. Since the domain was also bought through GSuite, how do I get that out?
- cyberge99 5y agoI’ve found Zoho to be fantastic. They offer good value, some extra shit if you want it, and you can bring your own domain. I think it’s about $35 USD a year.
- deckard1 5y agoZoho offers a "Free Forever Plan" which allows one domain. It's excellent. I actually prefer their web UI to Gmail.
- quesomaster9000 5y ago"Free Forever" somehow isn't legally binding, every year many companies renege on their promises or surreptitiously find ways to de-grandfather their customers plans via BS semantics or outright deceit.
- Andrew_nenakhov 5y agoFree Forever* * - while the current Terms of Service last
- quesomaster9000 5y agoLikewise I also use Zoho mail and it's good. But, after auditing a number of their enterprise products, dealing with their security team and seeing the quality of the code they produce I have to say they are a very significant security risk.
- ValentineC 5y ago
- vl 5y agoTo be fair, they stopped giving it away for free 10 years ago (I asked Urs at the time, and he said “it’s too hard to support and test another edition”, whatever). But I’m pissed as well, probably just gonna pay.
- raspyberr 5y agoPutting everything into the hands of an enormous corporation and being surprised when they do things to benefit themselves. insert picture of shocked but not that shocked fry meme
- area51org 5y agoThat's not an excuse to actually be complete assholes.
- angus-prune 5y agoI've posted this comment a few times in these threads. I'm in a same boat and did some digging with support and through the docs. When you cancel workspace, the accounts remain active but lose access to just the workspace features (gmail, drive, docs, calendar etc). The accounts will remain the same for things like google play, youtube etc and you won't lose access to any purchases. The biggest impact I can see, other than the headache of migration, is that former GFYD email address can NEVER be used for docs, drive etc, even on the same terms as a free personal account.
- deadgiveaway 5y agoThis is about people using G Suite legacy, not Workspace. You can't cancel Workspace if you don't have it.
- Znuff 5y agoThe point is you will have it. G-Suite Legacy gets converted to Workspace. Once you stop paying for Workspace, you lose functionality (GMail, Drive etc.). Nothing stops you from *still* using that account for purchases and moving your e-mail somewhere else.
- Znuff 5y agoFor a highly techy audience, you'd think people could have figured that out, but I guess outrage is better. You don't have to lose access to anything except the core products - gmail, drive, docs, calendar. You still get to log on with your Google Account to access your purchases.
- mikevo 5y agoLooks like you can add "Cloud Identity Free" to keep using Drive and Documents. They give each user 15GB free. https://support.google.com/cloudidentity/answer/7319251?hl=en https://support.google.com/cloudidentity/answer/7319251?hl=e... For a new domain I had to signup to Cloud Identity Premium then cancel. For an existing domain on Google Apps, just remove Workspace and add Cloud Identity Free.
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