Google gives way: legacy G Suite users will be able to upgrade to free accounts

There is hope for users of Google’s “legacy”free G Suite accounts. Last week, Google announced a drastic policy change – it will close the Google Apps accounts of users who signed up during the first few years the service was available for free. Users who had a free G Suite account were given two options: start paying monthly per user fees by July 2022, or lose their account.

Naturally, the move sparked a huge outcry outside (and presumably inside) Google, and the company now appears to be dropping most of the original announcement’s tougher terms. First, Google is launching a survey of affected G Suite users – apparently the company is surprised at how many people have been affected by this change. Second, it promises the ability to transfer data (including your content purchases) to a consumer account before the outage occurs.

Users affected by the outage were faced with two options: either suddenly start paying for their accounts, which have been free for years, or lose access to core Workspace apps like Gmail. Users who didn’t want to pay could only export data using Google Takeout, which downloaded some account data that turned into a bunch of unwieldy local files. Takeaway was a terrible option because it makes it hard to get your data back to the cloud, and you can’t export things like purchased content from Google Play or YouTube.

If you used your G Suite account like a normal consumer account and bought a bunch of digital content from Google, you could be losing hundreds or thousands of dollars in purchases. Without being able to get all the data from a Google account in a simple and straightforward way, Google’s “pay or lose your account”options looked like data extortion.

The support page detailing the shutdown has been quietly updated (Google isn’t making big changes just yet for some reason). First, if (and only if) you’re signed in with a free G Suite account, you’ll see a link to this survey, which is for free G Suite administrators with 10 or fewer users using the service for “non-business”goals. Google says that users who complete the survey will receive “updates on additional features for your non-commercial legacy account in the coming months.”This is a sign that Google had no idea how many people would be affected by this change, and now the company wants to hear from you.

Ideally, if the custom domain option is to be closed, there will be an option to transfer your free G Suite account to a custom Google account with all purchases, data, email, and other features. Naturally, you’ll have to choose a new account name and email address, but a minimal disruption to other services would seem like the least Google can do, and it looks like the company is building something similar. The support page has a new section titled: If I don’t want to upgrade to a paid subscription, can I transfer my data? »

It says:

In the coming months, we will provide you with the option to move non-Google Workspace paid content and most of your data to a free option. This new option will not include additional features such as custom email or multi-account management. You will be able to evaluate this option until July 1, 2022 and until your account is suspended. We will update this article with details in the coming months.

This is the option everyone has been asking for as it specifically refers to “non-Google Workspace paid content”, which would presumably mean all your app, game and media purchases made through Google Play and YouTube. The support article doesn’t provide any further details just yet, and only says to wait for further updates, but Google promises that the option will be ready before July, when account crashes start to occur.