DECEMBER 2020 PCWorld 11How Google’s new policy affects
your free storage in Photos and Drive
Google has eliminated the “free” loophole that allows you to store unlimited high-resolution
images in Google Photos. BY MARK HACHMANI
n mid-November, Google announced a
major change to its policy on storing
photos and other documents: All will
start contributing to your overall storage
cap, pushing you to eventually pay for
Google’s Google One cloud storage, or risk
having files deleted.
The changes won’t take place
immediately. Beginning on June 1, 2021, any
new photo that you take with a smartphone
not made by Google will count towards your
cap, which is currently 15GB within Google’sfree tier. The same is true of any new Docs,
Sheets, Slides, Drawings, Forms, or Jamboard
files. Existing photos and documents,
however, will not.
The change is a major one for Android
smartphone users, but can affect iOS users
too. Generally speaking, when you take a
photo with your Android smartphone, it’s
backed up to Google, as well as any other
services you’ve linked to your phone, such as
Box or Microsoft’s OneDrive. Likewise, iPhone
users can back up their photos into Google