Google reverses deactivation of the old GSuite account and will not take users' emails

Zoom / Submit an artist to your current Google reputation.

Google has finally released a solution for people with “old” Google GSuite accounts. After initially threatening to shut down free GSuite accounts if users didn’t start paying for the service, Google backed down completely. Once users complete certain registration steps, Google will allow their 16-year-old accounts to continue working. You can even keep your email address.

The epic one yet, if you haven’t followed it, is that Google has a custom domain user account service, currently called “Google Workspace” and formerly called “G Suite” and “Google Apps”. The service is a regular Google account that allows you to use an email ending with your custom domain name instead of “@gmail.com”. Today, this service is for businesses and costs money per month, but this was not always the case. From 2006 to 2012, domain-specific Google accounts they were free And even launched for families As a great way to get your Google Identity online.

In January, Google’s bean counter apparently noticed that this small group of old users were technically getting a paid service and decided it wasn’t acceptable. Google released an announcement in January declaring these people “old GSuite users” and basically telling them: “Pay or lose your account. These users signed up for a free service from Google and stored data there for 16 years, and there was no indication that they would be charged. Google has held more than a decade of user data hostage, asking users to start paying business rates for Workspace or face account termination.

A week later, after the inevitable public outcry, Google Somewhat gave up It would loosely end up providing “you an option to move paid content other than Google Workspace and most of your data to a no-cost option,” he said. Being told that you’ll be able to keep “most of your data” you’ve accumulated for 16 years is a somewhat alarming statement. A detail from Google in January was that “this new option won’t include premium features like personalized email,” so you’ll have to stop hosting your email with Google, and maybe have to switch with the Wild Google account conversion process. He then let those users swim anxiously in the wind, without further details, for six months.

How to register your free G Suite account

In May, Google finally told these users what would happen to their accounts. The New support page She saidFor individuals and families With your account for non-commercial purposes, you can continue to use the old free version of G Suite and opt out of going to Google Workspace. The link for this is here or in the G Suite admin panel. You will need to confirm that your GSuite account is for personal and non-commercial use, as companies still need to pay for Workspace. If you’ve already bowed to Google’s will and started paying for Workspace because of the January announcement, Google says you should. Contact support.

Zoom / The bottom ‘Personal Use’ button is what you want.

Lee Hutchinson

The most important news from this latest announcement is that Google has decided not to remove personalized email from users. a second support page He says, “You can continue to use your custom domain with Gmail, keep access to free Google services like Google Drive and Google Meet, and keep your purchases and data.” It now appears that there will be no changes to your account, provided you hit the “Self-Transfer” screen before the deadline.

The deadline for opting out of account closure, which has changed several times now, is June 27, 2022. If you do not complete this opt-out by June 27, you will be automatically billed to Workspace. If you do not have a registered card and do not opt out, your account will be suspended and closed on August 1st.

One of the fiercest parts of this story is automatic registration and billing, without explicit user consent. If you don’t follow tech news closely, you probably don’t know it’s happening, and you’ll suddenly be charged without your consent or find that your Google account has suddenly stopped working.

For a company whose main business pillar is persuading users to store large amounts of data on its servers, playing games like this is an odd move. At least he came to a reasonable conclusion.