Future Changes to Google Photos Storage Policy

 This week, Google announced changes to their storage policy on Google Photos. 

Starting June 1, 2021, new photos & videos that you back up in High quality will count towards your free 15 GB of Google Account storage. We wanted to let you know well in advance because you have backed up photos & videos in High quality and will be affected by this change.

Check the backup settings on the Google Photos app or website on each device you use to see what devices are backing up in High quality. This change does not apply to Pixel 5 and earlier devices.

If we've learned anything from these past four years, data and context are everything.  For a blogger who uploads photos, those are put into a Google Album Archive which isn't easily accessible from Photos, but still are part of the limits, both current and future.  Barring another future change down the road, I know my 4,700+ photos in that Archive are safe. Outside of a few early pictures straight from a digital camera or iPhone, most of those pics fall under the "High Quality" (re: reduced) category, but I'm having difficulty figuring out how much I've used over a decade of blogging.  

If needed, the extra storage is only $1.99/month, and we're in a world were everyone's cut the cable/satellite cord, but are perfectly fine to pay for four or five streaming services.  Just another story to tell the grandkids from "Back in the day, Google would let you do anything, and it didn't cost ya a nickel!"