Cloud storage is a basic requirement for many businesses and individuals, whether it is because they need to save multimedia files, documents, or other types of formats that they want to protect and make available when needed.
Google Drive is one of the most popular platforms for cloud storage, which belongs to the giant Google, because it has millions of users who use the Android operating system, have Gmail email and almost automatically backup their information and files via Drive.
The traditional Drive shared cloud storage account limit is 15GB for documents, emails, photos, videos, audios, and more. And on Google One, your storage can be 100GB or more depending on the plan you choose.
impose new restrictions
Depending on the platform the edgeGoogle has imposed a new ceiling for storing files in the cloud, which is 5 million files, regardless of whether you have a regular account or if you have paid for the Google One service to store more, and this was confirmed by Ars Technica and CNET portals.
However, it affected many users (which, according to Google, is only a small group), this rule only applies if a user has created 5 million files alone, they may have more than 5 million files provided that some of them have been shared .
Example of an affected user
Although 5 million sounds like a lot of files, there are people and companies that easily exceed that number. In a Reddit post, a user with 7 million files in Drive pointed out that Google had unexpectedly blocked him from creating new files, even though they weren’t over the 2TB he was paying for. Several other cases were reported with a similar incident, and they even came to believe it was a joke in very bad taste.
As mentioned on Reddit, the file limit means that someone with 2TB (disabled on Google One) with an average file size of over 400KB will reach their file limit even before they run out of storage space. In clearer and easier to understand words, it may happen that some users pay for more storage space than they can actually use or other solution is to compress all their files in Zip folders
File limit reason
According to Google spokesperson Ross Richenderver, he said the change was made as a way to “maintain strong performance and reliability” and that it should help prevent “abuse” of the company’s systems. If the account reaches its limit, Richendrfer said he’ll get a notification and can contact Google Support to fix the issue.
After the complaints, Google made the wise decision to reverse the limit and made its decision in a statement it posted on Twitter:
“We recently released an update to the Drive Elements Limits system to maintain stability and improve performance.” He added, “While this has affected only a small number of people, we are reflecting this change as we explore alternative ways to ensure a great experience for all.”
We recently rolled out a system update to Drive Items Restrictions to maintain stability and improve performance. While this only affected a small number of people, we are reversing this change while we explore alternative ways to ensure a great experience for everyone.
—Google Drive (googledrive) April 4, 2023
What was shocking about this decision, in addition to its impact on users, is that Google did not notify users, but rather acted silently.
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