DePauw Google Account Quotas

Google announced that new storage limits for Google Workspace for Education will take effect in January 2023. 

In response to these changes, DePauw will be implementing storage limits across all DePauw Google accounts on January 9, 2023, to ensure our campus-wide storage usage is maintained within this new storage policy for Google Workspace for Education.

In the following are key details about this update and actions that you can take to prepare.

How will the new storage limit affect me?

After the storage limits are put in place, if your account runs out of storage the following will occur until you free up additional space:

• Gmail: You will still be able to send and receive email.
• Drive: You will not be able to sync or upload new files. You will not be able to create new files in Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, Drawings, Forms, etc. Until storage is reduced, owners won’t be able to edit or copy the files affected by the storage quota set; collaborators won’t be able to edit the affected files. Syncs stop between your computer’s Google Drive folder and My Drive.
• Photos: You will not be able to add or back up existing photos or videos.

How do I review how much storage that I am using?

The storage limit for your account will apply to the total usage of all applications, including Google Drive, Gmail, and Google Photos. 

To review how much storage you’re using, go to https://drive.google.com/settings/storage.

Storage limits, beginning on January 9th, 2023:

Faculty/Staff accounts: 200GB
Student accounts: 150GB
Special accounts: 15GB – 200GB* (*dependent on current usage of the account)

What can I do to prepare for the new storage limit?

Review and reduce the amount of storage that you are using in Drive, Gmail, and Photos. You can do the following:

1. Review storage usage in relation to quota and delete large or unnecessary files in Drive, go to https://drive.google.com/drive/quota.
2. Review and delete large or unnecessary files in shared drives, go to https://drive.google.com/drive/shared-drives.
3. Consider deleting Drive content that you may have copied to a shared drive. If a file resides in two locations, it will be consuming twice the storage space.
4. Search for and delete unnecessary or large emails, go to Manage files in your Google Drive storage and follow the instructions for Gmail.
5. Use Google Takeout to download an archive of your Drive, Gmail, and Photos data to your local hard drive or copy your data to another Google account, then delete those items from your account. Note, downloading an archive of your data does not remove the data from your account, so once you have downloaded your Takeout file(s) remember to delete the corresponding contents from Drive, Gmail, and Photos.
   Follow the instructions below for the two options for downloading your data:
   1. Download your data into an archive
   2. Copy your data to another Google Account

What if I am currently using more storage than my limit?

If your account is currently over the storage limit, refer to the steps outlined above in “What can I do to prepare for the new storage limit.” Taking these steps to review and remove files or emails that you no longer need will enable most people to easily bring their account to within their storage limits.

Updated: 12/21/2022