Google Workspace Changes

Introduction: Google Workspace & Storage Changes

In a 2021 update to its users, Google announced that it would be making significant changes to the amount of storage available to all the universities and schools on the Google Workspace for Education plan, which includes Miami. These changes include Google’s elimination of unlimited storage with certain services (i.e., Drive, Gmail, and Photo storage).

Previously, Google provided unlimited storage for all user accounts in Miami’s Google domain. With the changes that Google is making, along with substantial cost, Miami must be conscientious of the amount of storage we use.

After this announcement, Miami went to work determining what this would mean for our users.

A consortium of universities (of which Miami is a member) met with Google in 2022 and negotiated pricing in this new world of cost-based storage. We were able to purchase additional time to accommodate Google's new policies; this has allowed Miami to postpone Google's enforcement of the storage quota to late spring 2024. This has allowed us some time to make key decisions about the future of Google Workspace products at Miami.

Therefore, in response to the announcement and limitations from Google, Miami users will experience a few changes. Most notably, there will be quotas on the amount of storage available to you within the Miami domain. The good news is: Very few people (less than one percent) will be impacted by the new storage limitations, and these folks will be contacted individually.

This means that depending on your role at the University (faculty, staff, student, and others outlined on the storage quotas page), by the end of the Spring 2024 semester, you will be able to store only that amount of data.

Please visit the FAQ for more information about specific situations and for guides for moving your data out of the Miami domain as necessary.

Please bookmark this page, as we will be updating it with new information as it becomes available.

Timeline

March 7, 2023: First notification to user community [Please see Communication Archive for full list of notifications]


Frequent reminders beginning in March 2023


April 21, 2023: Notice about changes to Shared Drives for students


April 8, 2024: Users of Lifetime Email will lose access to their accounts [Please see the FAQ for more information about Lifetime Email]


End of Spring 2024: All Miami users need to be within quota [Please see Storage Quotas for details]