22 ms·

I had a scare last year where Google supposedly gave me 30 days before they would shut off my Google account of 20yrs. Family photos, youtube videos, 20yrs of e

I had a scare last year where Google supposedly gave me 30 days before they would shut off my Google account of 20yrs. Family photos, youtube videos, 20yrs of email, not to mention the treasure trove of personal documents on GDrive. It took two weeks to duplicate the content and back it up elsewhere. This is a paid tier Google account and I've yet to get an explanation on why this happened. It appears to be because of an "associated" (whatever that means) Google Business account for a startup where I worked where they shut off my GSuite account after I resigned, but customer service couldnt provide a real explanation why it would also terminate my personal Google account. The automated websites where you upload photo ID to prove identity didnt work and didnt give an absolute confirm/reject...so i slept uneasily for almost a month knowing that my 20yr account might disappear. Ultimately it did not disappear in 30 days. Was it because I upload passport photos? Not sure. Because I spoke to customer service? Not sure. Because the original shutdown notice was a mistake? Not sure. The lack of clarity made it worse. I've heard stories about people losing personal accounts like this due to GCloud usage. At work, where I'm CTO, I have open access +MSAs to the three major cloud providers -- BUT I am very hesitant to use anything but AWS/Azure. The risk of something going wrong with GCloud and that metastasizing to my (or anyone's on the team) personal Google account (or vice versa) is huge and just not worth the risk.

boppo1 5y ago
What did you use to backup your google photos?
- TuringNYC 5y ago
  BlackBlaze. It required some manual effort and scripting. It is on a manually triggered batch that i'm running quarterly. I wish there was a service that could do it, ideally on a more regular cadence.
  - boppo1 5y ago
    Does photos have an api, or are you doing some cursor/screenspace stuff?
throwuxiytayq 5y ago
After reading so many posts like this, I decided to bite the bullet and start moving off-Google. Funny thing is, ProtonMail and Obsidian are much better than Gmail and Keep anyway. I'm still forced to use Google stuff here and there but I'm no longer dependant on them, and coincidentally I've been sleeping much better recently.
- skrtskrt 5y ago
  the editor for Google Docs is the one really good thing I can't get elsewhere, but I don't do that much important stuff in it - just like planning vacations, etc. Once I'm done editing something, if I want to back it up I can just export it elsewhere
  - polski-g 5y ago
    DropBox has a hook into Office's editors.
  - gigel82 5y ago
    Microsoft has a very usable online version that's free (with a bit of upsell here and there). Arguably more capable than Google Docs.
    - e40 5y ago
      Out of the frying pan and into the fire. Of course, I'm being a little flippant, but the MS ecosystem is not without its problems. A colleague has 3 MS accounts for dealing with 3 different things (a government contract, a 3rd party company contract, our company account). Because of this, he was in hell for days because of some fubar on the MS side. I have (seemingly!) different MS accounts, for Azure development and Office 365 and I am regularly confused by the various MS websites.
      - mbreese 5y ago
        MS Azure accounts always seemed odd and overly convoluted to me. I had an issue with my personal Microsoft account where I couldn’t sign up for an Azure trial (wanted to kick the tires on Codespaces before it moved to GitHub). Turned out, my account got associated to my kids’ schools MS account because that email address was on a school mailing list. That was a pain (and many hours) to get figured out.
dotancohen 5y ago
Customer service? For a Google account?
- TuringNYC 5y ago
  Yes, they do have customer service and I did get on the phone with someone. I'm not sure if this is universal, or because I had a paid tier Google account. That said, the rep failed to provide any definitive guidance on issue or resolution.
  - dotancohen 5y ago
    Good to know, thanks.
- codegeek 5y ago
  For Google Workspace (previously called GSuite), you do get support. Anecdotal but I recently used their live chat and the person was very helpful and helped me figure out a weird issue with a lot of patience. I would say it was a pleasant experience but this was the only time I needed them so far so you never know :)
  - runnerup 5y ago
    I've also reached reasonable-quality support due to being a paid consumer of GoogleOne, which includes phone support for most (all?) google consumer products.
    - fer 5y ago
      I even had them call me within an hour of opening a ticket.
_jal 5y ago
The old rules still apply: if you don't control the computer, you don't control the data on it. In a way, this is sort of a digital-era generalization of "freedom of the press belongs to those who own one."
nabeards 5y ago
Did you actually leave Google then? It’s not clear from your story, and it would be a shame that you decided to stay on such a hostile platform.
- TuringNYC 5y ago
  For my personal accounts, I've stayed but now I have backups of everything elsewhere. I'm also now double-replicating everything across other providers. The value add having everything so beautifully in my Google account is enticing, so I continue to have that as my primary personal account. For my corporate accounts there is NO WAY i'd use GCP. I have the privilege of MSAs with all three major cloud providers and we're doing most things with AWS. So on the corporate front, I didn't leave because I just didn't enter in the first place.
anoojb 5y ago
Is this an issue with all cloud providers? Or just large ones like Google, Amazon, Microsoft? I'm currently thinking of migrating from Google for productivity to Office 365. Wondering if I'm just re-branding the risk of my counterparty.
- TuringNYC 5y ago
  >>> Is this an issue with all cloud providers? Or just large ones like Google, Amazon, Microsoft? >>> I'm currently thinking of migrating from Google for productivity to Office 365. Wondering if I'm just re-branding the risk of my counterparty. With AWS/Azure, you typically wouldnt have extensive personal data with them, so you dont have the risk of work and personal accounts colliding. I dont know anyone with personal emails/accounts/photos on the Microsoft ecosystem. With Amazon, whats the worst that can happen? You lose your connected Amazon purchasing account, doesnt seem terrible. With Google you often have email/documents/photos with them. If you have an Android phone, you have almost everything with them.
aabbcc1241 5y ago
I tend to only use cloud drive as a mean to share files, but I do not trust them for permanent storage. Always keep offline copy (on multiple storage devices)

boppo1 5y ago

What did you use to backup your google photos?

TuringNYC 5y ago
BlackBlaze. It required some manual effort and scripting. It is on a manually triggered batch that i'm running quarterly. I wish there was a service that could do it, ideally on a more regular cadence.
- boppo1 5y ago
  Does photos have an api, or are you doing some cursor/screenspace stuff?

throwuxiytayq 5y ago

After reading so many posts like this, I decided to bite the bullet and start moving off-Google. Funny thing is, ProtonMail and Obsidian are much better than Gmail and Keep anyway. I'm still forced to use Google stuff here and there but I'm no longer dependant on them, and coincidentally I've been sleeping much better recently.

skrtskrt 5y ago
the editor for Google Docs is the one really good thing I can't get elsewhere, but I don't do that much important stuff in it - just like planning vacations, etc. Once I'm done editing something, if I want to back it up I can just export it elsewhere
- polski-g 5y ago
  DropBox has a hook into Office's editors.
- gigel82 5y ago
  Microsoft has a very usable online version that's free (with a bit of upsell here and there). Arguably more capable than Google Docs.
  - e40 5y ago
    Out of the frying pan and into the fire. Of course, I'm being a little flippant, but the MS ecosystem is not without its problems. A colleague has 3 MS accounts for dealing with 3 different things (a government contract, a 3rd party company contract, our company account). Because of this, he was in hell for days because of some fubar on the MS side. I have (seemingly!) different MS accounts, for Azure development and Office 365 and I am regularly confused by the various MS websites.
    - mbreese 5y ago
      MS Azure accounts always seemed odd and overly convoluted to me. I had an issue with my personal Microsoft account where I couldn’t sign up for an Azure trial (wanted to kick the tires on Codespaces before it moved to GitHub). Turned out, my account got associated to my kids’ schools MS account because that email address was on a school mailing list. That was a pain (and many hours) to get figured out.

dotancohen 5y ago

Customer service? For a Google account?

TuringNYC 5y ago
Yes, they do have customer service and I did get on the phone with someone. I'm not sure if this is universal, or because I had a paid tier Google account. That said, the rep failed to provide any definitive guidance on issue or resolution.
- dotancohen 5y ago
  Good to know, thanks.
codegeek 5y ago
For Google Workspace (previously called GSuite), you do get support. Anecdotal but I recently used their live chat and the person was very helpful and helped me figure out a weird issue with a lot of patience. I would say it was a pleasant experience but this was the only time I needed them so far so you never know :)
- runnerup 5y ago
  I've also reached reasonable-quality support due to being a paid consumer of GoogleOne, which includes phone support for most (all?) google consumer products.
  - fer 5y ago
    I even had them call me within an hour of opening a ticket.

_jal 5y ago

The old rules still apply: if you don't control the computer, you don't control the data on it. In a way, this is sort of a digital-era generalization of "freedom of the press belongs to those who own one."

nabeards 5y ago

Did you actually leave Google then? It’s not clear from your story, and it would be a shame that you decided to stay on such a hostile platform.

TuringNYC 5y ago
For my personal accounts, I've stayed but now I have backups of everything elsewhere. I'm also now double-replicating everything across other providers. The value add having everything so beautifully in my Google account is enticing, so I continue to have that as my primary personal account. For my corporate accounts there is NO WAY i'd use GCP. I have the privilege of MSAs with all three major cloud providers and we're doing most things with AWS. So on the corporate front, I didn't leave because I just didn't enter in the first place.

anoojb 5y ago

Is this an issue with all cloud providers? Or just large ones like Google, Amazon, Microsoft? I'm currently thinking of migrating from Google for productivity to Office 365. Wondering if I'm just re-branding the risk of my counterparty.

TuringNYC 5y ago
>>> Is this an issue with all cloud providers? Or just large ones like Google, Amazon, Microsoft? >>> I'm currently thinking of migrating from Google for productivity to Office 365. Wondering if I'm just re-branding the risk of my counterparty. With AWS/Azure, you typically wouldnt have extensive personal data with them, so you dont have the risk of work and personal accounts colliding. I dont know anyone with personal emails/accounts/photos on the Microsoft ecosystem. With Amazon, whats the worst that can happen? You lose your connected Amazon purchasing account, doesnt seem terrible. With Google you often have email/documents/photos with them. If you have an Android phone, you have almost everything with them.

aabbcc1241 5y ago

I tend to only use cloud drive as a mean to share files, but I do not trust them for permanent storage. Always keep offline copy (on multiple storage devices)