Google Workspace storage limit

Daniel_Koenig · 06-29-2023 10:24 AM

Hello,

A few days ago, I received an email that one of my customers had exceeded the pooled storage limit.

So far, so good. It is true that this customer is utilizing his Google Drive storage heavily (500 TB) and furthermore, he only has 1 user.

I tried to reach out to Google Workspace Support to clarify if there would be any chance that if 4 more users were created, we could ask for an increase (500+ TB) in storage. This is possible for Enterprise subscriptions with 5 or more users.

To my regret, the support agent was not able to help me clarify this.

The information I got was, and I quote:

"Please note that the files "read-only" means that your Google Drive is private by default and only the owner has initial permissions to view, edit or delete their files. If you choose to share a file with other people, you can decide whether others have read-only access to your files or if they are allowed to edit and comment on your files."

In a phone call, I wanted to clarify if this is really true that when the Drive is set to "read-only", already uploaded files can still be "edited", the support agent hung up the phone. End of the story.

Saying that I'm disappointed with this support experience would be an understatement, as I'm a reseller and a paying customer. Honestly, I would have expected more.

Can someone confirm that "read-only" really means that no more new files can be uploaded, but already existing ones can still be edited?

Thanks for your help.

NicoGa

Hello @Daniel_Koenig ,

Based on this article I believe that neither edit or creation are available once limit storage is hit:

Users can’t create new files in collaborative content creation apps like Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, Drawings, Forms, and Jamboard. Until they reduce storage use, nobody can edit or copy their affected files or submit forms owned by the user.

Daniel_Koenig

Hi @NicoGa ,

Thanks for getting back to me.

I also think that these files won't be able to be edited, even when the Google Support told me in two emails that they will, the name "read-only" implies it already more or less.

Well, in more or less 2 weeks I will see what will be true.

shayros

I am having the same exact problem. 2 days ago suddenly went from having 13.24TB with no problems to "you have reached 264% of your account"
After speaking with support right now it's on basically "nothing can be done"

orion1

I am also in the unfortunate situation of being given the short end of the straw by Google customer support with this issue. We have been long-time customers with a long-term contract and then poof, out of the blue we get "storage limit exceeded" message appearing even though our prior contract specifically included unlimited storage. Google customer service agents have been absolute duds and refused to help at all. We are exploring our options for canceling our contract with Google after this.

Daniel_Koenig

Which subscription are you using and home many users do you have?

orion1

We have an Enterprise Standard subscription with 11 users and a long-term contract going back to 2020. We were given the default storage bump that all users are able to request every 90 days now, but are still exceeding the newly imposed storage limit by a little bit. We have been given no accommodation for the fact that we are long-time customers on an existing contract that was explicitly sold to us by a Google representative with "unlimited storage" as a key benefit.

Daniel_Koenig

How much was the storage bump, and have they been picky with the business justification?

orion1

The starting storage was 5TB per user. The 90 day bump is an additional 5TB per user. They have not responded to or cared about any business justification (we are a news media organization with video production files being our biggest % of storage).

danella_s

Hey, I'm in the same situation with Enterprise Standard. I have been advised by Google to upgrade to Enterprise Plus for the ability to request additional storage. Are you indicating that you only receive an additional 5TB per user for additional storage request (per 90 days)? We have been advised we can request any amount of storage and it will be applied. It seems to be a loop hole that can change at any time on the discretion from Google. I would be interested what other options you have discovered. We are the same a media company with large productions files. I'm interested in cold archival storage too. The Google support person seem to be pushing us into a 3 year contract without all the information.

orion1

Correct, you can request a storage increase once every 90 days and it is 5TB per user. They seem extremely strict about this, with no accommodation for prior contracts, long-time customers, level of plan, total usage of Google products on anything else. We have heard nothing different about Enterprise Standard vs. Plus. Even if that were confirmed, I would personally not trust it since they have already clearly established that they are willing to revoke storage at any time. We are exploring other options and how we can terminate our contract with Google so we can downgrade from an enterprise account.

CloudGuardians

These are the hard facts, and some advice:

You can request more storage every 90 days.
Storage will be granted in blocks of 5TB per user, per request.
Storage increase will be approved if the account's pooled storage is getting full, not if the storage is full for some users.
A factor that may affect the acceptance of the request is the overall usage of the account: if you use other services (Gmail, Calendar, Meet, Google Docs...) it will give the idea that you really want a Google Workspace account, while just using Drive makes it look like what you need is a GCP Storage bucket.

martinmarteen

Does anyone actually know how to simply upgrade the storage?

The links in the email go to FAQ pages that offer no support, and when you eventually find the upgrade storage page on admin.google, you get an error message that basically tells you you're SOL.

Why goes Google make this so complicated?

Daniel_Koenig

You can't just buy additional storage for a specific user. Whether you upgrade your SKU to the next higher level or if your Google Workspace edition has pooled storage, your admin can buy storage for the organization.

https://support.google.com/a/answer/12284220?hl=en