deadgiveaway's comments

They've added yet another section to that FAQ: "possibly maybe let's see what we can do because I like your face sir" they might do something with up to ten users:

https://9to5google.com/2022/01/26/g-suite-legacy-free-person...

As you'd expect from Google it's vague and unfinished - what happens to the other users you don't choose to save, or perhaps you have to delete all but 10 users, and what happens to those 10 users anyway.

Tune in again in a few days and see what else has changed on that FAQ, or search for news articles about this process because they sure as hell aren't going to email you about it.

They can't even kill services properly any more!

Thanks for that. They really could have put this simple statement up at the start and avoided a lot of bad press.

Also, they could have told their stuff who've been fielding questions online about this change online; it might have stopped a few of them from telling people they'd be losing all their Photos, paid-for content etc.

I don't think there's a "line of thought". This isn't a logic problem - it's a business decision. Whatever Google wants to happen will happens. And some people have interpreted the available information - or have spoken to google representatives - and been told that they'll be able to keep using "additional" services such as music, movies, youtube, photos. And - this being google - other people have been told the opposite.

Some people are being told "you'll keep photos", and others are being told "You'll lose everything".

https://www.reddit.com/r/gsuite/comments/s7t45q/g_suite_lega...

There's only going to be one correct answer!

Leaving a $6 per user Google service which includes email for a $5 per user Fastmail service which is just email would be an odd cost-saving measure.

They're telling some people the exact opposite - that they'll lose all their photos. Google need to forget all this "core", "additional" crap and just list what people will and won't lose access to once they cancel Workspace.

People are having online chats with google and are being told they will not keep Photos once they cancel. So I think it's safe to assume that if there's not an official google page saying "you will not lose your photos" etc you must prepare for them to vanish either immediately or at any point in the future.

Thanks, but Fastmail is $5 per user per month if you want to use your own domain. Not much less than Google's $6 per user per month. I'm going to want between 2 and 4 users, but they're not heavy users and I just know I'm going to be wondering why I'm bothering to pay when I could just create another google account, have access to docs/calendar/drive/etc which I'm apparently not going to have access to even if I am successful in doing the "update to workspace/don't pay for workspace/cancel workspace/keep the workspace accounts in a sort of zombie state" dance.

I don't really understand. Why, when leaving G suite and going back to a normal account, would you not have access to stuff like Docs, Gmail etc? It's like you're being punished, rather than simply not having extra features.

Upgrade from G Suite legacy free edition Where can I get help? If you have questions, you can contact: Google Workspace support

So I click on that link, and I get:

How to contact us To get phone, chat, or email support for your legacy free account at (my domain), you need to upgrade to Google Workspace.

Well, no, you see, that's what I want to talk about. About not upgrading to Google Workspace.

Some people are saying if you convert your account to Google workspace then cancel that then you end up with what you want. You'd keep Photos and YouTube but no Gmail, contacts, calendar etc. I'm trying to discover if this is true.

I have a number of users at user1/user2/[email protected] on G Suite. If I started to use Fastmail, could they all continue to use their existing email addresses at Fastmail to send/receive mail, access their historical emails (if I copy those across) etc using whatever client? And second question: if after this G Suite shutdown in May (or whenever) Gmail is stopped for these users they can presumably still link Fastmail to Gmail? Or would they have to use some other email client? Would they each get their own credentials for logging in or would I have to trust them with my "main" Fastmail credentials? I've never used another email provider before.

Thanks. This is Google, where nothing's ever finished, so when I logged in and tried to find out the answer to questions like this I saw:

"Support availability is rolling out to our G Suite legacy free edition customers over the coming days. If you do not currently have access to Support, please check back in a few days. We apologize for any inconvenience, but look forward to connecting with you shortly."

I look forward to some support for the service I've used for 15 years and what to tell the 5 family members who use "G Suite" (aka Google Apps) to handle email from my domain.

Do you know if there's a list of which services will/won't be avaiable after this process? Seems a bit random. Google ads but not gmail..but you can use gmail to point at another email service presumably? Can I still use the google apps I paid for? Does my [email protected] sort of work like it would if I'd use a hotmain account as my android account? But...if I did that, wouldn't I have access to gmail still? I sort of assumed you would but perhaps not.

One thing about G Suite accounts is Google never got around to making them act just like normal accounts; I cannot review android apps with my account, nor can I share paid-for apps with family members. Will this functionality magically appear after I cancel?

This is about people using G Suite legacy, not Workspace. You can't cancel Workspace if you don't have it.

"You may"? May's a stupid word. Do they mean "You are permitted" or "hey, you may have access, you may not - depends how we feel".

Is there a definitive list of which are "Google Workspace core services, such as Gmail, Calendar, and Meet" and which are "additional Google services, such as YouTube and Google Photos."?

Do the 50 (in my case) G Suite legacy accounts on my domain because just 50 regular first-order Google accounts but without the core services? Can I still use gmail and point it at an external email provider?

And it's probably nothing to worry about but it's a bit odd there's no "i'm never going to upgrade and pay 50 users * $6 per month for this so please just cancel the G Suite workspace thing now and let me use my account on Android, with access to the apps and movies I bought, and using some other email provider" option and instead they're probably going to keep nagging me to "provide payment information". What if I use google pay - are they going to assume I'm interested in paying through that?

My email didn't say "You may". May's a stupid word. Do they mean "You are permitted" or "hey, you may have access, you may not - depends how we feel".

That's info related to cancelling from "Google Workspace". I'm on "G Suite legacy" so i'm not sure that applies to me. Maybe I have to upgrade, but not pay, then cancel. It's a bit of a gamble. What if I do that - or do nothing except wait - and find my account is eventually suspended? I have a bunch of accounts I use for photo backups, plus maybe 5 humans using accounts for Android login, and email. Suppose I own mydomain.com. Can everyone continue to log into android using [email protected], [email protected]? Gmail stops working - what does that mean? Assuming the users can continue to use their accounts for Android (youtube, photos, apps etc) can't they configure gmail to send/receive email via some other service?